The Top 10 Most Difficult Celebrity Names to Pronounce

Lifestyle Jul 21, 2021

Here are the top 10 celebrities with hard to pronounce names that can act as tongue twisters to even the most fluent English speakers. The pronunciation and spelling of these names sometimes even catches the celebrities in question out at times.

1. Benedict Cumberbatch – (Beh-nuh-duhkt Kuhm-buh-bach)

The mispronunciation of the name of this prolific British actor has almost become an art, people come up with the most ingenious replacement names. For example, Wimbledon Tennismatch, Bumblebee Bandersnatch and Buttercup Cucumberpatch. Here are some more ways of mispronouncing his name: 


2. Saorise Ronan - (Seer-sha Row-na-han)

It’s one of the few English words that uses four of the five vowels. Saorise sounds like inertia. Her first name means ‘Freedon’ in Irish Gallic. Here is how she and other pronounce it:


3. Chiwetel Ejiofor – (Choo-ih-tell Edge-ee-of-four)

He is a prolific actor with an incredible British accent. He is best known for his roles in Love Actually, 12 Years a Slave and his supporting role in Amistad. But it should be a comfort to his fans to know he has made peace with people being terrible at the pronunciation of his name:


4. Chloë Sevigny – (Klo-ee Sev-uhn-nee)

This American actress and fashion designer has an easy first name as the umlaut (or two dots) on her first name tells us that the last letter should sound like bee or three. But her French surname may leave most people a little bit confused. Here is how to correctly pronounce her name:


5. Lupita Nyong’o – (Loo-pita Nee-yong-oh)

This surname of this author and actress is something that can be tricky to pronounce. As it is sometimes with Kenyan names and surnames hard to figure out where to put the stress on the verb correctly. Here is a video that shows you how:


6. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – (Nee-kow-lai Cos-ter-wall-doh)

This actor is a fan favourite from his role in Game of Thrones as Jamie Lannister. This Danish actor’s name is very easily mispronounced as Nicolas Waldo. But here is how to pronounce it correctly:


7. Quvenzhané Wallis – (Kwuh-ven-jah-nay Walli-sh)

This tiny little actress is best known for her big personality in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Her name is an interesting combination of the first names of her parents. “Quven” is a combination of her parent’s names (Qulyndreia and Venjie). While the second part of her name is a Swahili word which translates to fairy. Here is how to use the correct intonation:


8. Djimon Hounsou – (Jai-muhn Huhn-soo) 

This actor and model was born in Cotonu, Benin. He is most well-known for his roles in Amistad and Black Panther. Here is how to say his name correctly and some of the history behind it:


9. Alexander Skarsgård – (Al-ex-san-der Scars-gour-dh)

This Swedish born actor has stolen the hearts of millions of women across the globe with his roles in Big Little Lies, True Blood and The Legend of Tarzan. However, his Swedish name may cause some trouble, so here is how to say it right in his funny skit:


10.Timothée Chalamet – (Timo-tay Shala-may)

This French-American actor is one of the hottest names on the ticket at the moment in Hollywood. He has been propelled to stardom by his roles in Lady Bird and Call Me by Your Name. Here is the man himself telling us it is sort of okay to mispronounce his name:


Conclusion:

Believe me, everyone struggles with intonation, pronunciation and reading punctuation marks when it comes to difficult names. This happens whether you are a native English speaker or a non-native English speaker. Here is Saoirse Ronan struggling to pronounce other celebrities’ names:


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