Celebrity names can be a challenge to pronounce if you have only read them in news articles or on film and tv credits.
And this difficulty has now been confirmed in new research which shows that the surnames of Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan are among the most mispronounced words of the year.
A list of names and words most frequently pronounced incorrectly was compiled by the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters (BIVR) and the language-learning app Babbel.
Rwandan-Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa, who stars in Doctor Who on BBC One, also joined the Irish actors on the list.
BIVR – the leading organisation for subtitling professionals – assembled the rankings by identifying the words that newsreaders, politicians and public figures have consistently struggled to pronounce.
Mescal, who stars in Gladiator II, said in an interview last year that the frequent mispronunciation of his surname was due to the popularity of the similarly named Mexican spirit ‘mezcal’.
He told the Hollywood reporter: ‘People get confused about how to pronounce my name because of the drink mezcal.
‘Everybody does it. I pronounce it MESS-kul and if I launched a tequila line then I would call it “MESS-kul’s mez-cal”.’
New research shows that the surnames of Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan (pictured) are among the most mispronounced words of the year
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 surname was due to the popularity of the similarly named Mexican spirit ‘mezcal’
Joining Mescal on the list was 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’, distinguishing it from other Irish variations where the ‘g’ is typically silent.
The ‘key challenge’ in pronouncing the actor’s surname ‘lies in the transition from the ‘g’ to the ‘n’, says linguistic and cultural expert Noël Wolf.
She told The Telegraph: ‘Unlike other Irish variations where the “g” might be dropped, Barry’s name includes it clearly. The vowel sound here is a very soft “i”, which can sometimes be misheard as a very soft “u”.’
Keoghan made headlines this year with his relationship to singer Sabrina Carpenter, whose chart-topping track Espresso was praised for its correct pronunciation of the caffeinated drink.
Carpenter – who is reported to have split from the Saltburn star on Wednesday – gained plaudits for clearly enunciating the word ‘es-PRESS-oh’ on the track.
Despite this, the word still has its own spot in the subtitlers’ list, due to the common mispronunciation of the word as ‘EX-press-oh’.
One of the celebrities on the list has even admitted to pronouncing their own name wrong.
Sabrina Carpenter gained plaudits for clearly enunciating the word ‘es-PRESS-oh’ on her hit track of the same name
Gatwa clarified that his name is correctly pronounced ‘N-shoo-tee’, explaining, ‘It’s like an 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 was ‘properly’ saying his name.
The 32-year-old clarified that his name is correctly pronounced ‘N-shoo-tee’, explaining, ‘It’s like an n (pause) shoo-tee’.
In the same interview, the actor confessed that he had previously told fans his name should be pronounced ‘Shootee’ as in ‘shoot like a shooting star and then an E on the end’.
But it was his own mother who called him out on his mistake, phoning him to say: ‘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 right, thanks for telling me mum. At 26′,’ Ghani said.
In the sporting world, Manchester City and Croatian national team defender Josko Gvardiol also made the list – having released a video explaining how his name should be pronounced (‘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 the British public struggled to pronounce was ‘flygskam’ – meaning ‘flight shame’ and pronounced ‘FLEEG-skam’.
The term was propelled into the spotlight by Greta Thunberg’s advocacy and gained renewed attention after Sweden announced it would eliminate aviation tax.
Another linguistic challenge for newsreaders in the UK was saying the name of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic mascot, the Phryge, pronounced ‘FREE-je’.
Commentators struggled to say the name of the animated red triangles – who were inspired by the Phrygian cap, a symbol of liberty.
The BIVR is responsible for captioning and subtitling real-time events, on television and in courtrooms.
