# 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:** 3
**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 6, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/41 "2016-03-06T03:46:32Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#): > > I never had a problem saying Robert Gwillame’s name. Spelling it on the other hand… ---
**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 6, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/42 "2016-03-06T03:53:46Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > arnold schwarzenegger, often the end of his last name is pronounced like the N word. Made sense just looking at the spelling and schwarz means black in German. Many people pronounced it wrong. > > I didn’t realize my mistake until after the Internet started. Schwarzenegger refers to a region in southern Germany called the Schwarzen (Black) Egg (Ridge). A person from the Black Ridge region is a Schwarzenegger. ---
**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 6, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/43 "2016-03-06T04:11:02Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Ray and Dave Davies. For years I pronounced it Dave-eez. Then I heard someone on NPR ask Ray how his last name was pronounced to which he answered that its Davis or more properly Daviz. Huh. I’ve always pronounced and heard it as you have it. But [here’s that NPR story with Ray Davies pronouncing his own name](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121833760). And, yeah, it’s something closer to “Davis.” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/44 "2016-03-06T05:24:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Schwarzenegger refers to a region in southern Germany called the Schwarzen (Black) Egg (Ridge). A person from the Black Ridge region is a Schwarzenegger. IIRC I’ve heard him claim that it means (black?) ploughman. ---
**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 6, 2016, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/45 "2016-03-06T06:16:55Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Spelling it on the other hand… Whoosh! (I’m like 99% sure…) ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/46 "2016-03-06T06:19:31Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > 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. This is from Joan Baez’s autobiography: _"I gave Time a long-winded explanation of the pronunciation of my name which came out wrong, was printed wrong in Time magazine, and has been pronounced wrong ever since. It’s not “Buy-ezz”; it’s more like “Bize,” but never mind. The French pronounce it “Bayz,” which (phonetically speaking) is the present tense of the verb baiser, which in slang means “to fornicate.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/47 "2016-03-06T06:25:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Spelling it on the other hand… indeed, exactly my point 😃 also - Rene Auberjonois may not be the most difficult to pronounce, but still a pain in the ass. (Oscar performance in “The Big Bus”, btw) ---
**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 6, 2016, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/48 "2016-03-06T06:41:49Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > IIRC I’ve heard him claim that it means (black?) ploughman. And I think, though I may be wrong, the “black” refers to a place, possibly the Black Forest region of Germany. I know he’s Austrian, but that doesn’t mean his name is strictly from there. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/49 "2016-03-06T06:52:57Z")
The entire Favre family has apparently either been mispronouncing or misspelling their name for decades now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/50 "2016-03-06T08:43:36Z")
Gena Rowlands. I learned at this year’s Oscars. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/51 "2016-03-06T13:12:57Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I’ll never figure out why Goethe is pronounced Goat-uh. Admiral Hyman Rickover pronounced it as ‘GAY-tuh’ in one speech. Similarly, Walter Koenig’s last name is pronounced ‘KAY-nig’. And OJ’s pronounced his first name as “uh-REN-THEE-uhl,” instead of “Oh-ren-thal,” as it would seem to be. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/52 "2016-03-06T14:03:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Really, it’s neither. > > The vowel in Bella is [ɛ] > In Bayla it is the diphthong [eɪ] > > Béla has the pure [e] vowel, which is a pretty common vowel in languages around the world, but it does not appear in most forms of standard English. Both Bella and Bayla are about equally wrong, so you should feel free to pick either one. Interesting; I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info. Are there any other words featuring that vowel sound that I might have heard, so that I could get an idea of what it sounds like? Most people who actually knew Lugosi (including his son) seem to pronounce it “Bayla,” so it seems to my amateur ears like “Bayla” is at least, shall we say, the preferred approximation for English speakers? ---
**Author:** ![Moris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moris/32/2846_2.png) [@Moris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moris)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/53 "2016-03-06T15:42:47Z")
Bob Moog, the inventor of the synthesizer. I thought his last name is “moooog”, but it actually rhymes with “vogue”. I just can’t get used to that. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/54 "2016-03-06T16:08:45Z")
> [@Moris](#): > > I thought his last name is “moooog”, but it actually rhymes with “vogue”. lol yeah like Andy, the former goalie. > [@furryman](#): > > I’ll never figure out why Goethe is pronounced Goat-uh. I always thought it was g(schwa)-tuh (lol wish my keyboard could do an up-side-down “e”.) (awesome little piece, btw, on him in the New Yorker recently) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/55 "2016-03-06T16:48:32Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Interesting; I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info. Are there any other words featuring that vowel sound that I might have heard, so that I could get an idea of what it sounds like? > > Most people who actually knew Lugosi (including his son) seem to pronounce it “Bayla,” so it seems to my amateur ears like “Bayla” is at least, shall we say, the preferred approximation for English speakers? Just about every Spanish or Italian word containing the letter “e” has this mid-vowel sound. English speakers sometimes substitute with the “ay” (as in “say”) sound, and occasionally with the “eh” sound, but neither is really correct. You’ll be understood by an Italian or Spanish speaker, but they’ll notice your foreign accent. The correct sound is just about between “ay” and “eh”, in terms of mouth position. ---
**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 6, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/56 "2016-03-06T19:52:06Z")
Re Goethe: Actually I think your right, it’s Ger-tuh and you kind of swallow the r. I’ve heard “Black farmer” and “black valley” for Schwarzenegger. Robert Guillaume, I don’t know how long I was watching Benson before I found out how he pronounced his name. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/57 "2016-03-06T21:54:51Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > As a child I thought the hemlock-drinking Greek philosopher was SO-crates. I mean, that’s what it _looked_ like, and I never heard anyone saying the name. Bill and Ted nod enthusiastically in agreement. I only just recently figured out that the Conyeigh West I heard about on TV and Kanye (Can-yeh) West that I stumble across in magazines sometimes are the same dude. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/58 "2016-03-06T23:13:33Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > IIRC I’ve heard him claim that it means (black?) ploughman. I thought that it was “Black Oak”. At any rate, I had always thought that Ralph Fiennes was “Ralf”, but, apparently, it’s “RAFE”. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Looey, not Louise. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/59 "2016-03-07T00:44:46Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Are you thinking of Yeats? Yes, I guess so. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973/60 "2016-03-07T01:58:17Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I thought that it was “Black Oak”. Looks like Arnold mentioned plo(w/ugh)man in a Letterman interview, but I can’t verify right now. > [@](#): > > At any rate, I had always thought that Ralph Fiennes was “Ralf”, but, apparently, it’s “RAFE”. File under: bizarre British names e.g. Featheringstonehaugh, St. John. > [@](#): > > Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Looey, not Louise. It’s not an affectation, her father is French. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-names-you-mispronounced-for-the-longest-time/747973.md?page=4)