The names and words you’ve been getting wrong all year… and how to actually pronounce them

Celebrity names can be challenging to pronounce if you’ve only read them in news articles or on movie and TV credits.

And this difficulty has now been confirmed in new research showing that the surnames of Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan are among the most mispronounced words of the year.

The British Institute of Verbatim Reporters (BIVR) and language learning app Babbel have compiled a list of the most commonly mispronounced names and words.

Rwandan-Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa, who stars in Doctor Who on BBC One, also joined the Irish actors on the list.

BIVR – the leading organization for subtitling professionals – compiled the rankings by identifying the words that newsreaders, politicians and public figures consistently struggle to pronounce.

Mescal, who stars in Gladiator II, said in an interview last year that the frequent mispronunciation of his last name was due to the popularity of the Mexican spirit of the same name, “mezcal.”

He told the Hollywood reporter: “People get confused about how to pronounce my name because of the drink mezcal.

‘Everyone does it. I pronounce it MESS-kul and if I were to launch a tequila line, I would call it “MESS-kul’s mez-cal.”

Rwandan-Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa, who stars in Doctor Who on BBC One, also joined the Irish actors on the list

Mescal, who stars in Gladiator II, said in an interview last year that the frequent mispronunciation of his last name was due to the popularity of the Mexican spirit of the same name, “mezcal.”

Mescal was added to the list by fellow Irish actor Barry Keoghan, who won a Bafta for his performance in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin.

The actor pronounces his surname ‘key-OH-gin’, with a hard ‘g’, which distinguishes him from other Irish variants where the ‘g’ is usually silent.

The “main challenge” in pronouncing the actor’s last name “lies in the transition from the ‘g’ to the ‘n’,” says language and culture expert Noël Wolf.

She told me The Telegraph: ‘Unlike other Irish variants where the “g” may be omitted, Barry’s name is clearly stated. The vowel sound here is a very soft ‘i’, which can sometimes be misinterpreted as a very soft ‘u.’

Keoghan made headlines this year for his relationship with singer Sabrina Carpenter, whose hit Espresso was praised for the correct pronunciation of the caffeinated drink.

Carpenter – who reportedly split from the Saltburn star on Wednesday – received praise for clearly enunciating the word ‘es-PRESS-oh’ on the track.

Despite this, the word still has its own place in the subtitle list, due to the common mispronunciation of the word as ‘EX-press-oh’.

One of the celebrities on the list even admitted to mispronouncing his own name.

Sabrina Carpenter received praise for clearly pronouncing the word “es-PRESS-oh” on her hit song of the same name

Gatwa clarified that his name is correctly pronounced ‘N-shoo-tee’ and explained: ‘It’s like a n (pause) shoo-tee

Earlier this year, Sex Education star Gatwa revealed that his mother had to correct him at the age of 26 to make sure he pronounced his name ‘correctly’.

The 32-year-old clarified that his name is correctly pronounced ‘N-shoo-tee’, explaining: ‘It’s like a n (pause) shoo-tee’.

In the same interview, the actor confessed that he had previously told fans that his name should be pronounced “Shootee,” as in “shoot like a shooting star and then an E at the end.”

But it was his own mother who confronted him about his mistake and called him up to ask, ‘What are you talking about? That’s not how you say your name. That’s not how you say it!’

“I was like, ‘Oh! Oh yeah, thanks for telling me, Mom. At 26,” Ghani said.

In the sporting world, Manchester City and Croatian national team defender Josko Gvardiol were also on the list after they released a video explaining how to pronounce his name (‘YOSH-ko GVAR-dee-ol’).

Other notable entries included a smokeless tobacco product from Sweden called Snus (pronounced ‘SNOOZ’) – which should be pronounced ‘with a long ‘o’ and a soft, slightly ‘z’-like ‘s’.

Another Swedish word that the British public found difficult to pronounce was ‘flygskam’ – which means ‘flight shame’ and was pronounced ‘FLEEG-skam’.

The term was brought into the spotlight by Greta Thunberg’s advocacy and gained renewed attention after Sweden announced it would abolish aviation taxes.

Another linguistic challenge for newsreaders in Britain was pronouncing the name of Paris’ 2024 Olympic and Paralympic mascot, the Phryge, pronounced ‘FREE-je’.

Commentators struggled to pronounce the name of the animated red triangles, which were inspired by the Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom.

The BIVR is responsible for the captioning and captioning of real-time events, on television and in courtrooms.