# Character name pronunciation decisions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034 "2014-07-13T23:48:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034/41 "2014-07-15T03:39:04Z")
Can you go back to picturing the characters in your head the way you did before you saw the movie? I always try and sometimes succeed. Depends on the pervasiveness of the film. I doubt I’ll read Harry Potter again, but if I do my head will probably be filled with the actors’ faces. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034/42 "2014-07-15T04:29:18Z")
The only example I can think of is Hermione, and I found it quite easy to change. I think this is odd, since I found hyperbole, a word I mispronounced for similar reasons, much harder to change. Her-me-own sounds wrong to me, but “hyperbowl” still sounds right. Though this might be because I think Hermione is just a really pretty name, and her-me-own is not. I don’t know, because, like I said, I haven’t encountered this before. I only hear from the authors when they get movie deals and that sort of thing, and that doesn’t seem to happen a lot with the stories that use oddly spelled names. I guess I’ve just outed myself as not being a Game of Thrones fan. Nothing I’ve heard about it has made me want to watch or read them. I like my medieval fantasy to be heroic. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034/43 "2014-07-15T11:29:20Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > This is just because GRRM’s habit of slightly idiosyncratic spellings of English words/names irks me very mildly, and so I feel the need to be a bit of a dick about it. I’m with you on this. But it’s overridden by my pedantry. See example below. > [@Stratocaster](#): > > The “real” Tolkein pronunciations were lost on me when I first read his stuff in high school. When I read explanations of how they were truly pronounced, it still wasn’t “real” in my head, not until the movies created an annoying dissonance after I actually heard it. So, I still tend to read the dragon’s name in my head as “Sm_aw_g,” not “Sm_ow_g.” But I don’t bother with Gandalf, because my mispronunciation is close enough. I checked Tolkien’s notes on pronunciation to make sure I didn’t get into any bad habits as I read LotR for the first time. > [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Who woulda thunk that you’re supposed to pronounce the K in Knufflebunny? Vermicious Knids. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034/44 "2014-07-15T19:08:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Father Xavier? A priest and he didn’t know how to pronounce Xavier? That’s tragic. The San Xavier Mission betrween Tucson and Nogales is pronounces with an H for the X, but otherwise, not in Spanish. / ha-VEER /. I recall reading a novel a couple years ago in which 2/3 of the way through the book, a character in the dialog corrected someone who pronounced his name wrong, so I had to shift gears then and think his name the new way through the rest of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034/45 "2014-07-15T20:49:41Z")
On a somewhat unrelated note: I must confess I am allergic to books with gooblygook character names, especially when the characters are not described fully early on. I find I have difficulty immediately creating a meaningful mental picture of the characters, and get a little lost keeping up when the character reappears. To give an example - in a book with standard English names it is easy to create a mental picture of characters named Timmy or Sally vs Doris or Herbert vs Biff or Wally. Each one is easy to pick out in terms of age, gender, or other characteristics. Whereas - Brma, Creideiki, F’ruthian, g’Kek, Gl’kahesh…um, idunno. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034/46 "2014-07-15T21:04:48Z")
Or a guy named Remus Lupin being a werewolf? ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034/47 "2014-07-16T15:27:33Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Or a guy named Remus Lupin being a werewolf? Or Fenrir Greyback. Or a guy named Sirius Black whose animal form turns out to be a black dog. Who’da seen that coming? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/character-name-pronunciation-decisions/693034.md?page=2)