Prominent figures, including the Vice President and a rising pop star, saw their names frequently mispronounced this year.
Language-learning platform Babbel and closed-captioning service The Captioning Group jointly released a list on Wednesday, highlighting the words most frequently mispronounced by U.S. public figures in 2024. This compilation offers a retrospective on the year’s most discussed individuals and topics, spanning pop culture and politics.
Esteban Touma, a Babbel linguistic and cultural expert, noted, “It’s a useful way to review the year and its significant events.”
Singer Roan, famous for hits like “Good Luck, Babe!” and a Grammy nominee, saw her name, correctly pronounced CHAP-uhl ROHN, frequently mispronounced as SHA-pel ROW-an.
During her unsuccessful presidential bid, Kamala Harris’ great-nieces took to the Democratic National Convention stage to clarify the pronunciation of her first name: COM-a-la.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s surname also proved challenging. During his 2020 presidential campaign, he even used posters and T-shirts displaying the pronunciation “Boot-Edge-Edge”.
Other words included on the list are:
— Dutch Kooikerhondje, pronounced COY-ker-HUND-che, a dog breed that gained prominence this year, thanks to Los Angeles Dodgers player Mookie Betts’ Kooikerhondje, Decoy, who stole the show during a ceremonial first pitch.
— The actress Zendaya, star of Dune, whose name is often mispronounced as zen-DIE-uh, but should be zen-DAY-a.
— Online retailer SHEIN, correctly pronounced SHE-in, not SHEEN.
— Newly discovered exoplanet SPECULOOS-3b, pronounced SPEK-yuh-lohss three bee.
— Phryge, the Paris Olympics mascot, pronounced FREE-je, a reference to the Phrygian cap, a symbol of the French Revolution.
— Semaglutide, the drug in weight-loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy, pronounced sem-ah-GLOO-tide, not SEE-mah-gloo-tide.
— The surname of Irish actor Barry Keoghan, who starred in The Banshees of Inisherin, is pronounced key-OH-gin.
Nancy Niedzielski, head of Rice University’s linguistics department, explained that the majority of words on the list are non-English, making mispronunciation unsurprising. She suggested that hearing the correct pronunciation is key to accurate pronunciation.
“There aren’t really tricks short of knowing how orthology works in that language,” she stated.
Several words from the U.S. list, including Keoghan, Phryge, and Shein, also appeared on the U.K. list compiled by Babbel with the Subtitling Professionals Association.
Additional words on the U.K. list include flygskam, a Swedish term pronounced FLEEG-skam, popularized by Greta Thunberg, meaning “flight shame,” and the Chagos Islands, pronounced CHAY-goss, which gained attention following the British government’s decision to return sovereignty to Mauritius.
Touma, a native Spanish speaker, emphasized the importance of persistent effort when faced with unfamiliar pronunciations.
“One of the problems we have is our mouths are not trained to do these sounds that come from different languages,” he explained.
Touma acknowledged personal struggles with some words, including Harris’s first name, noting that even with knowledge of the correct pronunciation, accurate articulation in conversation can be difficult.
He highlighted the culturally interesting aspect of learning to pronounce Roan’s name as her music gained popularity.
“The way we create understanding with each other is just trying to do these things,” Touma concluded.
