Weird Pronunciations of Celebrity Names

Celebrities – those mythical creatures of modern civilization – are people who manage to exploit their talents and achieve or create something unique, something timeless. Their achievements are so grand that their names and faces become known to a worldwide audience that admires or even worships them.

From a linguistic perspective, this may represent a problem if their names are transcribed incorrectly or not transcribed at all in other languages.

Even though English has long been the modern world’s lingua franca, not everybody knows it well enough to recognize the basic pronunciation patterns of many celebrity names.

Hollywood superstars frequently have an international background, and corresponding foreign-sounding names. Whereas the audience manages to remember their faces easily, they frequently mispronounce their names. This is not so bad, insofar as mass media do not set the incorrect pronunciations as a standard.

Now, let’s look at several celebrity names we often mispronounce.

Ralph Fiennes

Known among Harry Potter fans through the evil Lord Voldemort character, or almost equally through the evil Heathcliff from the 1992 film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Ralph Fiennes’s name has often been a problem for many English speakers.

The spelling of his name suggests the modern pronunciation /r-ae-l-f/. However, as the actor himself has pointed out, his name is of Old Irish origin and is pronounced as Reif (rhymes with safe).

Keanu Reeves

After Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, Reeves became known as a talented and funny Hollywood guy but it was the Matrix trilogy that brought him true fame.

Along with the fame came all the possible mispronunciations of his Hawaiian name: /k-ih-ah-nu/, /k-ih-ah-n-eh/. The correct one is – Kei-AH-new.

Kim Basinger

Contrary to what one may expect, the gorgeous news reporter from the 1989 Batman adaptation is not someone referred to as Kim /beh-sihn-jher/. Her name is actually pronounced BAY-sing-gr.

Saoirse Ronan

Another Irish-born artist’s name is on this list due to its highly non-transparent pronunciation. Young Briony Tallis from Atonement is in real life called SEER-sha.

Joaquin Phoenix

The remarkable portrayal of Johnny Cash in 2005’s Walk the Line was done by the American actor, born in Puerto Rico, whose name starts with the /h/ sound and is pronounced /hwa- KEEN/. So, there are no /zh/ or /jh/ sounds, as some may think.

Lindsay Lohan

The famous Hollywood troublemaker’s surname is a word used in Buddhism to denote a person who reached Nirvana, but in her case it’s not pronounced l-ow-h-ax-n but LOW-en.

Marion Cotillard

The name of this French beauty is well-known to worldwide movie audiences but many find it hard to pronounce. Her surname is Koh-tee-YAR.

Steve Buscemi

Generations of cinema lovers have had an opportunity to see Steve’s brilliant performance in dozens of legendary movies. However, his surname may still sound strange to those who have gotten used to pronouncing it as /b-u-sh-e-m-ih/. The way he pronounces it is Boo-sem-ee.

Famke Janssen

Her name appears strange to English speakers and it is natural that they are tempted to pronounce it in accordance with the pronunciation rules of English – /f-ae-m-k-eh/. Still, the original Dutch pronunciation is FOM-kuh.

Charlize Theron

This South African born actress, who recently played Snow White’s evil stepmother, also has a peculiar surname. Though it may not appear as strange as others on this list, it’s not actually pronounced /th-eh-r-ow-n/ as some would argue, but either THAIR-en (GA) or simply /tron/, which is the original South African version.

Photo credit: Foter.com / CC BY-SA, IMDB