# "Cooba" Gooding, Jr. ? Really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127 "2012-01-30T00:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127/41 "2012-10-09T00:59:15Z")
> [@Howkre8iv](#): > > I had a chance to chat with him and asked him how he pronounces his name. His response was that he gives it the same American pronunciation as his son Cuba Gooding Jr. He said it is pronounced “Q-ba”, not “Cooba.” Mm hmm. I thought so. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127/42 "2012-10-09T02:01:07Z")
> [@Howkre8iv](#): > > This past Satruday night (10/06/12), I saw the Main Ingredient with Cuba Gooding Sr. perform at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas, Ca. Afterwards I had a chance to chat with him and asked him how he pronounces his name. His response was that he gives it the same American pronunciation as his son Cuba Gooding Jr. He said it is pronounced “Q-ba”, not “Cooba.” Wow, cool. Thanks for updating us. ---
**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:** [October 9, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127/43 "2012-10-09T02:08:47Z")
The thing that’s weird about Fox News doing it of all places is that overcorrecting pronunciations to that of their native language is a liberal stereotype. At least using Usama instead of Osama is sorta conservative–using the old official name instead of the newer popular name used by the “lame stream” media. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127/44 "2012-10-09T03:07:39Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The thing that’s weird about Fox News doing it of all places is that overcorrecting pronunciations to that of their native language is a liberal stereotype. > > At least using Usama instead of Osama is sorta conservative–using the old official name instead of the newer popular name used by the “lame stream” media. Just as an aside, the “Usama” spelling seemed to become rather popular when Obama became a household name. Just too damn easy for highly embarrassing slip-ups. For what it’s worth, it seems to be really hard to spell Arabic names wrong when not writing in Arabic, as there is no official romanized spelling system for the language (unlike Mandarin Chinese, for instance, where everybody uses pinyin when they must spell it out in western letters.) There’s an old related joke about this pertaining to Muammar Qadaffi: “May his spellings be many”. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127/45 "2012-10-09T03:39:05Z")
Anybody else have the sudden urge to go kooba diving? ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127/46 "2012-10-09T03:41:23Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Anybody else have the sudden urge to go kooba diving? I’ve always referred to it as sckewba diving. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127/47 "2012-10-09T13:15:38Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Just as an aside, the “Usama” spelling seemed to become rather popular when Obama became a household name. Did it really? Cite? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cooba-gooding-jr-really/611127.md?page=2)