# Famous names you mispronounced for the longest time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973 "2016-03-05T02:34:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/1 "2016-03-05T02:34:23Z")
I’m currently watching the DVDs for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Lena Headey is on some of the commentary tracks. She introduces herself at the start of each episode she commentates, pronouncing her name as follows: LEE-na HEE-dee Bwah?! I’ve been rhyming her name with “head” for years and years, and I’m not the only one. Last week Mr.Skin was on Howard Stern and they were talking about her Walk of Shame scene in Game of Thrones, and all of them (mis)pronounced it like I did. Any other names out there you mispronounced forever until you heard the person say it themself? ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/2 "2016-03-05T02:45:01Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I’m currently watching the DVDs for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Lena Headey is on some of the commentary tracks. She introduces herself at the start of each episode she commentates, pronouncing her name as follows: > > LEE-na HEE-dee > > Bwah?! I’ve been rhyming her name with “head” for years and years, and I’m not the only one. Last week Mr.Skin was on Howard Stern and they were talking about her Walk of Shame scene in Game of Thrones, and all of them (mis)pronounced it like I did. > > Any other names out there you mispronounced forever until you heard the person say it themself? That’s _Hedley_. [Rimshot] ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/3 "2016-03-05T08:55:27Z")
**Tolkien** , which I pronounced as _Tolk-Yen_ for decades. In my defense, I grew up in a small French-speaking town where no one had heard of him (that was in the late 80s, long before the movies and the Internet). However, I must admit I still haven’ t really got used to the correct way to say it (_Tolk-EEn_). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/4 "2016-03-05T09:03:33Z")
Milla Jovovich. It’s “_Meela Yo-vo-vitch_” apparently. I was being way more literal. Ryan Phillippe also does not pronounce it in a French way, he includes the trailing “e” as an additional syllable. I refuse to comply. I’m not certain about Charlize Theron, as I’ve heard both a French lilt to her surname “_Theh-RON_” and a clumsy straight “_Therron_”. I prefer the former. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/5 "2016-03-05T13:36:04Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I’m not certain about Charlize Theron, as I’ve heard both a French lilt to her surname “_Theh-RON_” and a clumsy straight “_Therron_”. I prefer the former. Properly, it’s a straight “tuhron”, “t’ron” or even “tron”, \*no-one \*in South Africa pronounces that first phoneme like the ones in “ **th** is” or “ **th** in”, since “th” in either form isn’t an Afrikaans phoneme at all. The whole name is inherited from French but mangled to Afrikaans tastes ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/6 "2016-03-05T14:20:55Z")
For years I pronounced Dick Vitale’s name with an E on the end, because I knew a guy in high school with that last name who pronounced it that way. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/7 "2016-03-05T14:42:27Z")
Maybe this doesn’t count against me so much, because _lots_ of people make this mistake, but the old horror star Bela Lugosi. Or, as you sometimes see it written this days, Béla Lugosi. His first name is pronounced Bayla, not Bella. Just like Mr. Fleck and Mr. Bartok. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/8 "2016-03-05T14:47:04Z")
I’ll never figure out why Goethe is pronounced Goat-uh. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/9 "2016-03-05T14:55:02Z")
Not a personal name, but the capital of South Dakota is Pierre. It’s not pronounced at the name by locals, but as one syllable, PEER. I didn’t know that until recently, in my head I always said PEE-AIR. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/10 "2016-03-05T15:00:26Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I’ll never figure out why Goethe is pronounced Goat-uh. Is it? English speakers naturally struggle with the palatalized vowel, but I usually hear it as something more like Ger-tuh or Gair-tuh. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/11 "2016-03-05T15:14:41Z")
Saoirse Ronan, from \*Brooklyn \*and _The Grand Budapest Hotel_. I always pronounced her name, “the chick who was in _The Lovely Bones_,” because I never had a clue how it’s actually pronounced. Then I listened to her on the Nerdist podcast and apparently it’s pronounced like, “SER-sha.” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/12 "2016-03-05T15:44:37Z")
Until just a couple of days ago, I was never sure how Michael Learned, the mother on “The Waltons”, pronounced her first name (mainly because I never really cared). I had assumed it was just a fancy way of spelling “Me-Shell” (Michelle). But look up an interview on youtube and it is “Mike-al”. Wiki says that her parents never explained why they gave her a masculine first name. Joan Baez said a few years ago that virtually everyone mispronounces her last name because “Time” magazine told its readers wrong when they did an article on her in the early 1960s. Apparently it is closer to “bees” but she is used to the “bi-ezz” people use. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/13 "2016-03-05T16:03:19Z")
Proust. I still don’t know how to pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/14 "2016-03-05T17:43:25Z")
I think it rhymes with “boost”. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/15 "2016-03-05T18:06:41Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I think it rhymes with “boost”. It’s supposed to, but I’ve never heard anyone say it (in English) except to rhyme it with joust. Or Faust. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/16 "2016-03-05T18:19:22Z")
Mia Wasikowska’s name is often mispronounced. The w’s are pronounced like v’s: vasikovska. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/17 "2016-03-05T18:21:59Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Milla Jovovich. It’s “_Meela Yo-vo-vitch_” apparently. I was being way more literal. Same, and I just corrected myself recently (within the past few weeks) when I watched The Fourth Kind. At the start of the movie, Milla is standing in the woods looking at the camera and she says: “Hi. My name is MEEla YOvovitch.” It was the combination of that plus Lena Headey on the commentary track that inspired me to start this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/18 "2016-03-05T18:24:32Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Saoirse Ronan, from \*Brooklyn \*and _The Grand Budapest Hotel_. I always pronounced her name, “the chick who was in _The Lovely Bones_,” because I never had a clue how it’s actually pronounced. > > Then I listened to her on the Nerdist podcast and apparently it’s pronounced like, “SER-sha.” Tadhg is another Irish name few Americans know how to pronounce. It’s pronounced Taɪg - like tiger without the er. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/19 "2016-03-05T18:33:04Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I’ll never figure out why Goethe is pronounced Goat-uh. It’s German, and the “oe” sound is a close-mid front rounded vowel. It’s the same sound as represented by the umlauted “ö.” You round your lips as if saying “oooooo,” but you kind of say something like an “ih” or “eh” sound. To me, the closest approximation is the “oo” in “book” of most English dialects. Or pronounce “GER-tuh” without the “r”. For whatever reason, most Americans, at least, pronounce it as “GER-tuh,” with the “r.” With British non-rhombic accents, the r is “pronounced” in the sense that it colors the preceding vowel, but no actual rhotic consonant is said. As for the “the” part, German does not have the “th” sound of English, and that digraph represents a plain “t” sound. And the terminal “e” is usually pronounced in German, as well ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/20 "2016-03-05T18:45:02Z")
How about Jann Wenner? I still don’t know. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973.md?page=2)