You’re pronouncing your favorite brands completely wrong! Complete list of the hardest household names to get right – with Nike being the best
When you’re buying a pair of sneakers, choosing your next car, or suggesting a restaurant to your friends, the last thing you want to do is make a pronunciation mistake.
From Louis Vuitton to Hyundai, there’s no shortage of brands that can be tricky to pronounce, especially if the names have non-English origins.
With this in mind, Solopress investigated how many people search for how to pronounce popular brand names using Google’s search volume data, to reveal the most mispronounced names around the world.
So, are you making these mistakes or pronouncing these brands correctly?
Read on for the full list, including which name surprisingly took first place, and how you should actually pronounce each one.
It was revealed that ‘Nike’ is actually the most difficult brand name in the world to pronounce
It was revealed that ‘Nike’ is actually the most difficult brand name in the world to pronounce, with an average of 25,500 people googling how to pronounce it every month.
Over the years, there has been a longstanding debate over how to pronounce the American shoe and clothing company’s name.
However, the correct way to say Nike is actually ‘Nai-kee’ and it is the most mispronounced brand in the world.
Philip Knight, the founder of the American brand, confirmed the extra syllable in 2014. But many people continue to call it ‘Nai-k’, with only one syllable.
In second place is the car company Hyundai, which carries out no fewer than 24,230 searches worldwide every month.
The South Korean brand name is correctly pronounced ‘Hyun-day’. Even with the new ad about the correct pronunciation, people continue to search for the correct way to pronounce it.
With the automotive industry booming in countries like South Korea, Germany, Japan and France, it’s no wonder that some brand names can cause confusion around the world.
And when it comes to cars, the confusion continues as Volkswagen ranks third with 20,100 monthly searches.
In second place is the car company Hyundai, which carries out no fewer than 24,230 searches worldwide every month
As car enthusiasts will know, the correct way to pronounce the German car name is ‘Folks-vagen’.
Fourth on the list is a fast food restaurant that is hugely popular in America and has since expanded to Britain.
Mexican grill Chipotle leaves 16,460 people scratching their heads every month when they try to say it out loud.
Despite “Chip-ottel” being a common mispronunciation, the correct way to say it is actually “Chuh-powt-lay.”
The word chipotle comes from the Nahuatl, an indigenous Mexican language, word chilpoctli, which literally means a smoked chili pepper.
The top five is completed by the French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton – a household name all over the world.
From luxury bags and leather goods to shoes and perfumes, the brand named after its founder sells a host of designer items – but can you pronounce the name correctly?
As many as 13,200 people worldwide struggle to say it the right way, namely ‘Loo-ee Vuh-ton’.
Mexican grill Chipotle makes 16,460 people scratch their heads every month when they try to say it out loud
Numbers six and seven on the list are technology related – Google (Goo-gl) averages 11,380 per month, while Apple (A-pl) closes behind at 6,050.
YouTube is in eighth place, which is correctly pronounced ‘Yu-tube’ – it has a lower search count of 2,670 people per month worldwide.
Finally, motor company Nissan (2,600) and multinational computer software company Adobe (2,100) complete the list in ninth and tenth place.
Nissan is pronounced ‘Ni-san’, while Adobe is correctly pronounced ‘Uh-dow-bee’.
The new research also looked at each brand category individually, from travel and hospitality to technology and entertainment.
Other notable performances included McDonald’s (Muhk-do-nuhldz) with 1,690 searches per month, and Uber (Ooh-buh) with 1,450.
Although BMW seems quite simple, in its native German language the name sounds more like ‘bay-em-vay’, causing almost 2,000 searches worldwide every month for the correct pronunciation.
How many brands have you realized you’re pronouncing incorrectly?
Richard Kemp, the designer leading Solopress Design, believes that a solid, clear brand name is of the utmost importance.
He has this advice for startups looking to name their brand:
‘A company’s name is often undervalued as a branding asset, but is in fact one of the most important.
‘Although pronunciation errors can never be completely avoided, especially when we take the international market into account, steps can be taken to minimize uncertainty.
“Try to keep it to four syllables or less, and make sure it’s easy to spell and satisfying to pronounce.”
Sylvia Johnson, head of methodology at Preply, added: ‘The complexity of brand name pronunciation corresponds to the linguistic makeup of each name.
‘Depending on the country or language of origin, it varies in patterns, tones and unique phonetic formats.
‘Selecting a universally pronounceable brand name serves as a powerful tool for global market penetration. A clear and universal statement positions the brand favorably within the community of users and strengthens recognition and trust.’