Does your child have a name that people trip over? We look at the most tough to pronounce monikers!
Naming your child can be fun and exciting, but it can also be a nerve-wracking experience. You definitely don’t want your child to end up hating his moniker, or be inconvenienced by it, throughout his or her life!
That said, there are plenty of people whose names have intrigued everyone they meet and boggled others’ minds. From doctor’s appointments, to job applications and school paperwork, these labels cause raised eyebrows and provoke plenty of questions!
Some of these names are given to honour specific traditions, or a heritage, while others are given simply to give the child a “unique” name.
Cultural reasons
Certain naming traditions require unique pronunciations, contrary to how the names are spelt phonetically in English. For instance, you wouldn’t use English spelling rules to pronounce Irish, Spanish and French names.
Some of these names are given to honour specific traditions, or a heritage, while others are given simply to give the child a “unique” name.
Many Irish names come from the Gaelic branch of the Celtic languages. You’ll see names like Caoimhe (pronounced Key-va), Niamh (pronounced Neev) and Aoife (pronounced Ee-fah).
In Spanish, or Latino cultures, there are several commonly mispronounced names, too. By now, you should know that Jose is supposed to be pronounced Ho-Seh, but did you also know that Vergara (as in Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara) is pronounced Vair-gah-rah instead of Vur-gah-rah, and that Rodriguez (like in Fast and Furious actress Michelle Rodriguez) is pronounced as Roh-DREEG-ehz, instead of ROD-rig-ehz.
Africa is another culture whose names have interesting pronunciation. In a language spoken by the Kalahari bushman, called !Kung, the exclamation mark is voiced by a click sound made by touching your tongue on the roof of the mouth, in the same way you make the tick-tock sound of a clock. The language was featured in the 1980 movie The Gods Must be Crazy, and one of the characters was a native Namibian bush farmer called N!xau.
Celebrity names that are hard to pronounce
Some of the most well-known people have difficult to pronounce names as well.
Just look at Atonement actress Saoirse Ronan, whose name is pronounced Sur-sha Ro-nahn. She wore a handy sign when she appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show in 2016, with the correct pronunciation. More recently, Ronan’s name was butchered by actress Jessica Chastain when the former was nominated for Best Actress at the 2018 Golden Globes. Chastain had pronounced her name “Sher-sha”.
Another young actress who probably gets plenty of people calling her name wrong is 14-year-old child actress, Quvenzhané Wallis. The Oscar-nominated child star’s name actually combines her parent’s first names ― Qulyndreia and Venjie ― while “zhane” is Swahili for "fairy."
Plenty of sports fans would also twist their tongues in a valiant attempt to get their favourite sports stars’ names right. Take Chelsea football star César Azpilicueta for instance ― when the Spaniard first arrived at the Premier League club, fans decided to call him “Dave”, to avoid having to pronounce his name. Azpilicueta later created a short video to help his social media followers get his name right.
Bizarre names
And then there are handles that aren’t just impossible to pronounce, they don’t make sense. In 1996, a Swedish couple tried to register a name for their 7-year-old child, “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116”, claiming that it was “a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation.”
The district court rejected the name and fined the couple 5,000 kronor ($815).
“The girl next to us gasped and whispered to her friend, ‘The mother gave her son a girl’s name!’”.
Commonly mispronounced names in Singapore
In Singapore, countless kids have interesting names ― some of which get butchered on being prounounced, whether in schools or in public.
Rebecca De Souza, 36, stay-at-home mum to Andreas Dhiraj, 3, anticipated problems with how people may pronounce her son’s name in Singapore.
She laughs that people have called him “Oon-dreas” and “Andrea” before. “Once, the nurse at a clinic called out for ‘Andrea’ and I knew she was referring to us because I’ve tried to correct her a few times before, unsuccessfully obviously. So, I got up with my son and the girl next to us gasped and whispered to her friend, ‘The mother gave her son a girl’s name!’”.
De Souza adds that Andreas’ name hardly gets spelled correctly, even in school by his teachers. “It took almost a year before they got it right.”
Other commonly mispronounced names in Singapore include Javier (Pronounced Har-vee-air, not Jay-vee-er) and Joaquin (Wah-Keen, and not Jo-ah-kwin).
Yet another mum, Jessica Low, laments that her 3-year-old daughter, Kirsten, often gets called “Kristen”. “Why don’t people look carefully to see where the ‘r’ is placed? It was very confusing for Kirsten last time, but she’s somehow gotten used to being called both ways!”
Photos: iStock and @theellenshow/Instagram
Like us on Facebook and check SmartParents regularly for the latest reads!
You’d love these features, too…
Celeb kids who are carbon copies of their famous parents [Photo Gallery]
8 steps to teach junior to play independently
MUM SAYS I didn’t think P1 registration would stress me out!