Celebrity Names We've All Been Mispronouncing

"What's in a name?" William Shakespeare once wrote. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Still, getting someone's name right is a way to show respect, as Noor Wazwaz explained on NPR. "Pronouncing someone's name correctly isn't just a common courtesy," she said. "It's far more than just the syllables that come out of someone's mouth. It's an important effort to create an inclusive society, a way to emphasize safety and belonging."

Whose name could be easier to get right than a celebrity? After all, actors and musicians are some of the most talked-about people in the world, so it's easy to assume that their names are pronounced the way everybody says they are. That's not always the case, though, and especially in the age of social media — where stars can put out their own information, correcting the record — fans are sometimes surprised to learn that they've been saying the name of their favorite celeb wrong for years. Never fear; we've put together a list of 14 celebs whose names we've all been mispronouncing, so study up!

Though she was already dating John Legend by that time, most of the world was introduced to model and cooking extraordinaire Chrissy Teigen in 2010, when she made her debut in that year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Teigen — then going by "Christine" — appeared on CBS News and told a story about meeting model Brooklyn Decker at the Super Bowl. "We had the same shoes, so it was a nice little connection," Teigen said. They became fast friends, which is how she got such a high-profile modeling gig so early in her career. 

In the years that followed, Teigen became incredibly famous. She's hosted shows like "Lip Sync Battle" and "FabLife," released multiple cookbooks, and even shared her family life with Legend. 

In 2018, almost a decade after her Sports Illustrated appearance, the "Chrissy's Court" host revealed on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" that we've all been saying her name wrong. "It is TIE-gen," she sighed, not TEE-gen. She said her father has stuck to the correct pronunciation of their family name, but she's long since given up. "It's my fault," she said. " ... I'm tired of correcting people." Furthermore, she joked, "You can call me anything. I'll respond to it."

Pop music fans know Swedish sensation Tove Lo from her 2014 single "Habits (Stay High)," which climbed to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The "Cool Girl" parlayed that early success into a string of critically-acclaimed albums, including 2022's "Dirt Femme." 

While promoting that album, the "Grapefruit" singer appeared as a guest judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race." RuPaul shocked audiences when he introduced her as "Too-Vay Loo," not, well, "Tove Lo." Fans took to Twitter to express their surprise, including "Canada's Drag Race" contestant Eve 6000. "THAT'S how you pronounce Tove Lo!?!?" she wrote.

Lo had been trying to tell people. When the clip of her "Drag Race" introduction went viral, she tweeted, "this is not news." However, in a video for Billboard, she confessed that she too had occasionally adopted the international pronunciation, "TOVE Low." In pronouncing it the Swedish way, she ran the syllables together a bit more than RuPaul had; it's supposed to be something more like "TOO va-LOO." In other words, it's all good. "Hi, I'm TOO va-LOO, aka, Tove Lo, and you're watching Billboard News," she said graciously.

Saoirse Ronan rose to international prominence thanks to her role in "Atonement." She played Briony Tallis, a young girl who falsely accuses a man of abuse. Roles in films like "The Lovely Bones," "Lady Bird," "The Grand Budapest Hotel," and more quickly followed, and Ronan is now one of the most acclaimed actors of her generation. After all, she's been nominated for four Oscars.

Ronan is Irish, and her first name isn't a particularly common one outside of her native homeland. In 2015, Dennis Quaid mangled it when he announced that she'd received a Golden Globe nomination for "Brooklyn." Clearly aware that he was about to screw it up, Quaid paused, then went with, "SHEE-SHAW Ronan." Well, that's clearly not right.

When she hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2017, Ronan used her monologue to debut a little song meant to help people remember how to say her name. Trouble was ... the song was intentionally confusing. "It's Saoirse with an ER, not SORE-see with an OR, cause SORE-see with an OR goes OR not ER," she sang. "It's SHH instead of SSS, UH instead of EE, simple as can be, see, SER-shah." If you can't commit all of that to memory, she offered an easier rhyme to help fans remember. It's Saoirse like inertia, she pointed out. Easy enough!

Cast your mind all the way back to 2020, as painful as that might be. We were stuck at home, watching what felt like the end of the world, and we all just wanted to feel like normal people again. To that end, there was "Normal People," a Hulu show that premiered in April of that year. The show, based on the book by Sally Rooney, introduced international audiences to rising Irish sensation Paul Mescal. His sensitive, charismatic performance as the hunky Connell won fans around the world. In the years since, he's even been nominated for an Oscar, thanks to his turn in the 2022 film "Aftersun."

Mescal has "Gladiator 2" in the works, a film that will likely prove the young actor is here to stay. If you want to get in on the Mescal train early, there's one thing you should know: you might be pronouncing his name wrong. In a video for The Hollywood Reporter, the "All Of Us Strangers" star acknowledged, "People get confused with how to pronounce my name, because of the drink 'mezcal.' Everybody does it." He explained, "I pronounce it MESS-cull." Thankfully, Mescal is good-natured about the mix-up. "I wonder ... if I launched a tequila line, I would call it Mescal's Mezcal," he joked.

Barbadian singer Rihanna hit the international stage in 2005 with "Pon de Replay." Her debut single went all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100; she's since followed it up with a staggering 14 number one hits. She's still a bona fide sensation, even if she hasn't released an album since 2016's "ANTI." Rih headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2023, after all, and her beauty brand plus SAVAGE X FENTY has helped make her a billionaire, according to Forbes. As she once sang (in her 2009 hit "Hard ft. Jeezy"), "That Rihanna reign just won't let up."

How could it be, then, that most people pronounce the name of one of the most famous women in the world incorrectly? Most of us probably say "Rih-AHN-na," but that's not quite right ... even if that's how she appears to be saying it in "Hard." In 2012, on the red carpet for a Time 100 event, Rihanna spoke with HLN's AJ Hammer about how her name is pronounced. "I knew this was the question," she laughed. "It is Rih-ANNE-ah." She added a "But," as though she might be about to let people off the hook for mispronouncing it for all these years. Hammer cut her off, as though insisting we should all get it right. "He's right," Rihanna agreed. "Whatever he said." Got that, everyone? If we get her name right, maybe she'll give us more music someday.

YouTube star Tana Mongeau rose to prominence thanks to her storytime videos, letting her followers in on events in her life through a quirky, unique storytelling style. Videos with titles like "MY STALKER BROKE INTO MY HOUSE: STORYTIME" have racked up millions of views, and by 2018, she was popular enough to host her own convention. "Tanacon" didn't go particularly well, to say the least; New York Magazine called the catastrophe "a Fyre Festival for the YouTube Set," and Mongeau went down in YouTube history. She's since dated Bella Thorne, "married" Jake Paul, and more.

In other words, Tana Mongeau knows how to keep her name in the headlines. But ... how is that name pronounced, exactly? In 2022, she appeared on fellow YouTuber Alex Warren's podcast Locked In. The concept is that Warren locks himself in a room with a guest for a full hour, leading to a wide-ranging conversation. In the episode's first moments, however, Mongeau and Warren got into a back-and-forth over how her name should be said. "It's MO-jo," Mongeau said. Warren shot back, "Why? It's spelled MON-jue."

Mongeau launched into a diatribe about her struggle with her own name. "Take up with the French, you know? Like, I didn't create it, you know?" she said. "I'm just here, living with it." One thing about Mongeau is for sure; if she's living with something, we're all going to hear about it.

Alicia Silverstone was once one of the most famous actors in Hollywood. She ruled the 90s in films like "Batman & Robin" and "Blast from the Past," and of course, she was the epitome of cool in "Clueless." That film is still referenced frequently, including providing the inspiration for Iggy Azalea's music video for her 2014 hit "Fancy." Appearing on Today the following year, Silverstone expressed pride in the fact that the film was still relevant. "It's just always amazing how many people it reaches, and what an age range it reaches," she said.

"Clueless" may still be relevant, but Silverstone's star has faded somewhat in the past few decades. That being said, thanks to roles in Netflix projects like "The Baby-Sitters Club" and "Reptile," Silverstone is still around. Case in point: she's got more than four million followers on TikTok! The "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" star hopped on the app in 2021 to let Gen Z know that there's a fourth syllable in Alicia, which is not pronounced like "Alisha." As if! "My name is ah-lee-see-yah," she enunciated clearly. "Ah-lee, see-yah."