How to Pronounce Names Correctly (and Respectfully)

Saying someone's name correctly is a small act of respect that people remember. Names can be hard — they often follow the spelling rules of another language, not English — but with a little care you can get them right, or at least close, before you ever say them out loud.

Why it matters

A name is part of a person's identity. Consistently mispronouncing it (or avoiding it) can feel dismissive, while making the effort to say it well builds trust instantly — in classrooms, interviews, meetings, and introductions. It's worth thirty seconds of preparation.

The avoidance is worth naming directly, because it is the most common failure and the least obvious one. When people are unsure of a name they often route around it: they say “you” instead, address the group rather than the person, or quietly skip them in a round of introductions. The person notices. A clumsy attempt made in good faith lands far better than being edited out of the conversation.

Names don't follow English spelling rules

Many names come from languages with different sound-to-spelling systems. If you read them as if they were English, you'll usually be wrong:

• Saoirse (Irish) → SEER-sha, or SUR-sha, which is the form the actor Saoirse Ronan uses. Never “say-orse”.
• Siobhán (Irish) → shiv-AWN.
• Niamh (Irish) → NEEV, one syllable.
• Nguyen (Vietnamese) → closest English is WIN, with a hint of ng before it.

Saoirse is a useful example of a second point: sometimes there is more than one correct answer, and the person's own preference is the correct one. Two people with identical spellings may say their names differently, and neither is wrong.

None of these are irregular in their own language. Irish spelling is highly consistent once you know that bh is a “v” sound and that a fada (the accent in Siobhán) lengthens the vowel. The problem is not that the name is difficult — it is that you are applying the wrong key. Learning two or three patterns per language does more for you than memorising individual names.

A few patterns worth knowing

• Irish: bh and mh → “v” or “w”; dh and gh are often silent. See Tadhg and Caoimhe.
• Polish: sz → “sh”, cz → “ch”, w → “v”, ł → “w”. See Krzysztof.
• Vietnamese: tones carry meaning, and ng can begin a syllable — a sound English only allows at the end. See Nguyen.
• Welsh: ll is a breathy sound with no English equivalent; w is a vowel. See Llewelyn and Rhys.
• Greek: stress placement is not where English speakers guess. See Papadopoulos.

If you regularly work with speakers of one language, our guides by native language explain that language's sound system in more depth.

Name order isn't universal either

Getting the sounds right is only half of it. In Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hungarian and Japanese convention, the family name comes first — so “Nguyen Van An” is not “Mr. An”. Some cultures use patronymics rather than inherited surnames; Spanish-speaking countries commonly use two surnames, and shortening to the last one is often the wrong choice. Icelandic names are not surnames at all in the usual sense. If you are unsure which part to use in a formal address, that is also a fine thing to ask.

How to check a name before you say it

1. Look it up. Search the name on our name pronouncer to hear it in multiple accents.
2. Break it into syllables and note where the stress falls.
3. Say it slowly a few times, then at natural speed.
4. Record yourself and compare — on any name page you can play the reference and your own attempt back to back.
5. When in doubt, ask. “Am I saying your name right?” is always welcome.

How to ask, and what to do when you get it wrong

Asking well is a skill worth ten minutes of thought. A few things that work:

• Ask for the name, not a verdict. “How do you say your name?” is easier to answer than “Did I say that right?”, which invites a polite yes.
• Repeat it back and check. Say it, then ask “closer?” — this signals you intend to keep trying.
• Ask once, privately, in advance if you have to read a list aloud. A roll call is the worst possible moment to be learning.
• Write yourself a respelling. Not the spelling — the sound. “shiv-AWN” in your notes is worth more than seeing Siobhán again.
• Don't make it a performance. A long apology, a joke about how hard the name is, or a story about your own struggle shifts the burden back onto them.

If you get it wrong, correct course briefly — “sorry, shiv-AWN” — and move on. Then actually use it. The repair matters less than whether you say it correctly the next three times.

One thing to avoid: offering a nickname to make it easier for yourself. If someone volunteers a short form, use it gladly. If they don't, renaming them is not a kindness, and being told your name is too difficult is a common and wearing experience for people whose names sit outside the local norm.

If it's your name being mispronounced

You are entitled to be called by your name, and correcting someone is not rude. A short, matter-of-fact “it's actually NEEV” works better than softening it into an apology. Some people add a respelling to their email signature or profile, and on any of our name pages you can share a direct link that plays the audio — useful for a new team, a conference badge, or a teacher's list at the start of term.

Practise with real names

Explore the name pronouncer for 122 names across 13 origins, each with a hand-checked respelling, its meaning, and audio in four accents. Every respelling is checked by hand rather than generated, because automatic tools get exactly these names wrong — which is the whole reason the section exists.

Related: how English stress works (useful for longer names), and place names people mispronounce.