Pronouncing My Name for You

"And this is my little Seap. Ha ha ha ha..."

It's Liza with a "Z", not Lisa with an "S",
'Cause Lisa with an "S" goes sss not zzz
It's "Z" instead of "S", "Li" instead of "Lee"
It's simple as could be — see, Liza

— Liza Minnelli, "Say Liza (Liza with a "Z")"

A character walks another through the correct way to say their name.

Names that get this treatment include a common name with a less common pronunciation or multiple ways to correctly say it, such as Tara or Andrea; a name derived from another language than the one used in the work (like a Czech name in a work that's in English) that would trip up a layperson; and a name from a conlang or one that's otherwise totally made up.

Other characters might react to the explanation with accusations of poshness ("You're saying your own name this way just to sound fancy") or with Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?. Someone who still gets it wrong might just be forgetful or ditzy. However, the term might be genuinely difficult for them to say, if it uses phonemes that are rare or nonexistent in their native language. A malicious character will pronounce the name incorrectly despite the explanation. In comedic works, a character having to repeatedly correct others can become a Running Gag.

This trope is useful out-of-universe because now the audience also knows the correct pronunciation without having to guess or seek supplementary material.

May overlap with Accidental Misnaming and Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable. This may or may not prevent Viewer Pronunciation Confusion.

Examples are limited to personal names, clarified by the name's owner or someone close. Other proper nouns such as locations often have You Say Tomato in play, while someone should reasonably know their own name better than anyone else. This is not just about people's names being mispronounced — the correct pronunciation has to be clarified on-screen. The audience's opinion of what is correct is irrelevant.

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In-Universe Examples Only:

Advertising

• An A&W root beer commercial features a confident but clueless job candidate repeatedly calling his interviewer "Dumbass". Eventually, the interviewer clarifies that his name is pronounced "Doo-MOSS". His nameplate shows "Mr. Dumass".
• On loaves of Bimbo's bread, the slogan "Say beem-bo!" is displayed prominently, because the original name is Italian, where 'Bimbo' is the diminutive of 'bambino', or child, and the English word spelled the same and pronounced "Bihm-bo" means something else.
• Hector Boiardi, an Italian immigrant to the U.S., founded the Chef Boyardee brand under the name "Boy-Ar-Dee".
• An advert in Sweden for Swedish clothes manufacturer Blåkläder (pronounced "Bloh-klay-der") featured an American who consistently mispronounced it as "Black-lah-der". After about 30 seconds of this, a Swedish guy approaches him and says "Say after me: Blåkläder!" The guy responds "That's what I said. Black-lah-der!"
• Early print ads for Ghirardelli chocolate instructed the reader to ask their shop for "Gear-ar-delly", ensuring people knew how to break the name down and pronounce it with a hard G.
• In The '70s, there was an air freshener commercial (Glade or Airwick) that made use of this trope. A woman was married to a man named Herb, and she used herbal air fresheners, so she would keep telling her husband that the "H" in "Herb" was not used in "herbal". The commercial ends with her yelling at him that "It's not "HHerbal", it's "'erbal", "'Erb"." He smirks and corrects her: "Herb."
• A UK advert for Tesco featured a Mrs. Belcher, who insists "It's pronounced 'Bell-SHARE', actually," though no-one seems to believe her.

Anime & Manga

• In the original manga and anime of Death Note, Misa mistakes Light's given name as "Moon" the first time she sees it written, which Light corrects.
• In Digimon Universe: App Monsters, Cameramon, as in a camera-based Appmon for recording or capturing images, and his sensitivity about the pronunciation of his name.
  Gatchmon: Who are you!?
  Cameramon: Cameramon!
  Haru: Caameramon?
  Cameramon: It's not Caameramon... CAMERA ...mon
  Haru: Caamera...
  Cameramon: CA!
  Haru: Cameramon.
  Cameramon: Correct.
• In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Kazundo Gouda gives Chief Aramaki his business card when they first meet. The chief misreads the kanji and mispronounces his name as "Hitori", to which Gouda tells him is a pretty common mistake, but most people remember his name once they associate it with his quite memorable face.
• In Haibane Renmei, one character corrects the fact that Rakka refers to him as Hiyoko, pointing out it's "Hyohko", with exaggerated emphasis on the "oh" sound to make the pronunciation difference clear.
• High School D×D: In the English Dub, when being introduced to Asia Argento, Issei's father pronounces it like the country, AY-Sha, while she corrects him in that it's pronounced AH-zyah.
• Pokémon the Series: Black & White: A Running Gag in the series is Stephen (one of the rivals introduced during the series) insisting that his name is pronounced "Stef-AHN", in response to people pronouncing it "Steven" or "STEPH-an."
• In Tiger & Bunny, when Kotetsu is first hired by Apollon media, Mr. Lloyds says he can see how his name is spelled but asks how it's pronounced, which Kotsetsu then explains.

Comedy

• Brian Regan has a comedy routine in which he has trouble remembering names, and he stresses the difficulty of making a mistake when somebody else's name is similar to another.
  "Oh, hey there, Carolyn."
  "It's Caroline. It's Caroline, Brian."
  "It's Bri-awnh! Yes, my name is Brauaaagh! It's very hard to say my name correctly, because my name is Brynamengenjah! Can you say that? Very few can."
• At the celebrity roast of William Shatner, George Takei introduced himself to the guest of honor with the following line: "Hello, Bill. My name is George Takei (TAH-kay), as in rhymes with toupee (TOO-pay), and not, as you have insisted on pronouncing it for the last forty years, tak-EYE!" (The "EYE" being drawn out in mocking reference to Kirk's "KHAAAANNN!!! KHAAAAAANNN!!!" line is just toupee-shaped icing on the cake at that point.)

Comic Books

• The Batman Adventures: One issue has Commissioner Gordon seeking out a crime informant named "Wiesel". Gordon, like every other character this man had ever encountered, pronounces the name to rhyme with "weasel". He tries to tell Gordon that the accent is on the second syllable, but gets cut off.
• Hellblazer: John Constantine has on several occasions explained to people that the last syllable of his name is pronounced to rhyme with "line", not "lean". Despite this, live-action and animated adaptations have used the American pronunciation.
• The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist: A Running Gag is that people keep mispronouncing Adrian Tomine's surname ("Toe-mine", "Toh-min-ay") and he tries to correct them but can't.
• In the Marvel Mangaverse, Benjamin Grimm’s name is pronounced ben-ya-MEEN. Jonatha mockingly over emphasizes the pronunciation when talking about him, as if she’s tired of being corrected; despite being a very shy, passive Extreme Doormat he’s later seen correcting an offscreen interviewer on the pronunciation.
• The Order of the Stick: In the prequel book Start of Darkness, Big Bad Xykon repeatedly corrects people who spell his name "Zykon"... even in their speech balloons. It's possible that the two names actually are pronounced differently, though.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Bunnie's last name "Rabbot" was always referenced by her cybernetic limbs. However, over 200 issues later, it was revealed to be her actual family name, pronounced "Ra-BEUX", by her uncle Beauregard.
• Spider-Man: Spider-Man goes out of his way to point out you gotta "pronounce" the hyphen so it's two words ("Spider Man") and tends to get up in arms whenever someone pronounces it as one whole word ("Spiderman"). Apparently, it makes it seem like a Jewish last name or something to that effect.
• Steel: Writer Christopher Priest added a recurring character named Dr. Vilain during his run. The doctor wasn't really evil, just ruthless, and would constantly remind people. "It's French, it's pronounced 'will-HAYN'".
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: Dr. Venom insists his name is pronounced "Phe-nom".

Fan Works

• Blixemi: In his "Know Your Clanmate" episode, Scourge takes the time to point out that his name is pronounced like "Scurge", not "Scorge" (which is a very common fandom mispronunciation). The narrator continues to call him "Scorge". They eventually get into an argument over it. At the very end, she refers to him by his kittypet name, Tiny, which pisses him off even more.
• In By the Sea, Obi-Wan mispronounces Cody's name; it's actually Kote. Obi-Wan is mortified at first to hear he's been mangling his lover's name this whole time, but Cody actually likes the sound of it and prefers that Obi-Wan pronounce it the "wrong" way as a sort of pet name. He always wanted a nickname like his little brothers Rex and Kix.
• In EVA Sessions: Someplace Vast and Dry, Shinji's bodyguard Hunter Vaas, an Afrikaner, explains that his name is pronounced XOON-ter.
• In Farce of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao snaps "It's pronounced Tsow Tsow" at Mi Heng, who likely pronounced it Cow Cow.
• In Offspring, Link's daughter Mira clarifies how her name is pronounced to her amnesiac father. It is pronounced either as "Mee-rah" or "My-rah", and she's okay with either.
• In Pokemon Opal And Garnet, Kaylie's Touceet Clopin (named after that Clopin) gets his name continually mispronounced as "klop-pin," with English pronunciation. Clopin is always quick to correct them with the (correct) French pronunciation, "kloh-PAH~n," which ends in a French nasal vowel. Since so many Pokémon have trouble with said nasal vowel, he'll usually accept "kloh-PAH (without the nasality)," but also tell them exactly how the nasal vowel is supposed to be pronounced:
  Clopin: You have to essentially take the ending and give it a sort of tight, nasal pinch. "PAHHHHHHHHHHH" — that's where the pinch comes in — and then "~n." You barely say the "n," if at all. It's under your breath, at least.
• In Shakedown Shenanigans, a Bolian warrant officer mispronounces Captain Kanril Eleya's surname as "kan-rile", and she corrects him that it's "kan-rill".
• TFA Kaleidoscope: Lt. Kelly's full name is Kelly Junko, which is pronounced Yun-ko. She yelled this to Optimus when he mispronounced it.
• In Warriors Kingdoms: The Prophecy Begins, Graie makes sure that Ross knows his name isn't "Gray".
• In What a Strange Little Colt, Gabriel explains his name’s pronounciation to Fluttershy when she gets it wrong.
  Gabriel: Most of you say 'Gab Real,' but it's all one word. Gab-ree-ul.

Films — Animation

• In Frozen, the Duke of Weselton insists it is pronounced "Wessel-ton" when everyone pronounces is "Weasel-town". In light of his own attempt on Elsa's life, Kai relays a message from Queen Elsa: "Arendelle will henceforth and forever no longer do business of any sort with Weaseltown."
• A running gag in The LEGO Ninjago Movie is that Lord Gamaron insists that the proper pronunciation for Lloyd is "Luh-Loyd" and gets annoyed when anyone tries to correct him.
• Leroy & Stitch: When Lilo and Reuben confront Hämsterviel and say his name, the latter irritably clarifies that his name is not pronounced "Hamster-veel" (as Lilo and Reuben have been pronouncing it throughout the series), but "HUM-ster-veel".
• Wreck-It Ralph: At the Bad-Anon meeting, Ralph mispronounces a villain's name as "Satan", and he clarifies it's "Sa-TEEN". In the credits, his name is spelled Saitine.
• In Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs, Prince Average insists that his name is pronounced "Ah-voo-RAHJ'' whenever someone pronounces it the way it looks.
• In Zootopia, Duke Weaselton insists that it's pronounced "Weasel-ton" when Judy pronounces it "Wessel-ton".

Films — Live-Action

• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: On multiple occasions, the Red Lectroid John Bigbooté has his name mispronounced. Lord Whorfin calls him "Bigbooty", and the U.S. Secretary of Defense calls him "Big Boot". Near the end of the movie he actually gets shot by Lord Whorfin because of his angry insistence that his surname be pronounced "big-boo-TAY".
• Bandslam: Sam spells her name as "Sa5m", but the "5" is silent.
• In The Bank Dick, Sousé keeps correcting people with "It's pronounced Sous-Ay! Accent grave over the e!"
• In Ashens and the Quest for the Game Child the character Nemesis has to constantly remind other characters that his name is pronounced "NEE-ma-SYE", and is (allegedly) Japanese. He is a white Briton like the rest of the cast.
• In Blazing Saddles, Hedley Lamarr keeps correcting people who forget the "l" in his first name. When someone actually is talking about Hedy Lamarr, he still corrects them.
• A Running Gag in The Comedy of Terrors is Gillie calling Trumbull "Tremble". Trumbull would correct him, and Gillie would respond that that's how he said it, "Tremble".
• In Brawlin Cell Block 99, Vince Vaughn's Bradley Thomas corrects people who call him by the diminutive "Brad" several times. "Bradley," he says.
• In Crazy, Stupid, Love, several characters pronounce David Lindhagen's last name as "Lind-hey-gen", even after he corrects them that it is pronounced "Lind-hah-gen".
• In Netflix's adaptation of Death Note, the first thing Ryuk does when appearing in front of Light is telling him the name is pronounced "Ree-ook", after the later mistakenly reads his name out loud as "Righ-uk".
• Django Unchained: When Django shoots Billy Crash in the groin, Billy screams, "Da-jango! You son of a bitch!'' Django educates him before delivering the coup de grace:
  Django: The D is silent, hillbilly. [Boom, Headshot!]
• In Final Justice, nobody Geronimo meets in Malta ever says his name correctly: It's "HAY-ronnie-mo" rather than "jurr-ONNA-mo." After a certain point he gives up on correcting people.
• In Freedom Writers, The E of Eva's name is pronounced with a long a, not a long e^note  This is the standard pronunciation in Spanish. She will not hesitate to correct someone who mispronounces her name.
• The protagonist of High Anxiety addresses his mentor as Professor Little Old Man (accent on Man), and is corrected: Little-Oldman (accent on Old).
• History of the World Part I has Count DeMonet. Peasants and aristocracy alike pronounce his name as "Count Da Money", only to have him redden with frustration and correct the pronunciation to "Dee Moh Nay."
• James Bond: In GoldenEye, when Bond mispronounces Natalya Simonova's name, she points out, "Natalya Sim-yon-ova".
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In Captain Marvel, when Fury mispronounces the name of Carol's mentor, Mar-Vell, as "Marvel", Carol chides him, explaining, "It's two words: Mar. Vell." Fury responds that "Marvel" sounds better.
  • In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, there's a scene where Shang-Chi explains to Katy how to pronounce his name, saying it slowly multiple times with the correct tones, even doing the tonal hand gestures.
  • In Eternals, Jack misnames Thena as "Athena". She corrects him by saying her name, followed by, "Drop the A."
• In the French movie Mesrine: L'ennemi Public n°1, which is about the life and death of the famous French '70s gangster Jacques Mesrine, the title character is often annoyed that the media pronounce the s: "It's pronounced MEH-rine (insert curse of choice)!"
• Muppets Most Wanted: Constantine's henchman is called Dominic Badguy, but pronounces his surname as "Bad-GEE" (it's French).
• The Ref makes a Running Gag out of the Chasseur family's last name, which is often pronounced by others as "CHESS-er".
  "It's pronounced chas-OOHR! It's 18th century French Huguenot!"
• The Specials: Minute Man is constantly correcting people that it's "My-noot Man! Do I look like a soldier from the Revolutionary War? I don't think so! Am I wearing a three-cornered hat? No! I turn small. Think!"
• The Third Man: Dr. Winkel has to clarify how his name is pronounced.
  Martins: Could he, could he have been pushed, Dr. Winkle?
  Dr. Winkel: Vinkel. I cannot give an opinion.
• In Tremors 6: A Cold Day in Hell, multiple characters mispronounce Dr. Ferezze's name as "Freeze" or similar, causing him to angrily correct them.
• For the first third or so of Young Frankenstein, Frederick Frankenstein consistently corrects people's pronunciation of his surname: "Fraun-kon-shteen." Igor decides to be "Eye-gor" and calls Frederick "Froderick". Eventually, Frankenstein accepts the common pronunciation, while Igor sticks with Eye-gor.

Literature

• In Animorphs, the heroes discover that one Mr. DeGroot is looking for Tobias. When Tobias speaks to DeGroot's secretary, he asks for Mr. DeGroot (apparently pronounced as spelled) and is told that it is pronounced as "de-groat".
• Discworld:
  • In Hogfather, Jonathan Teatime pronounces his last name for someone ("Te-ah-tim-eh") in his first appearance. It gets mispronounced throughout the book, which he finds a bit annoying.
  • In Going Postal, even when confronted with a determined golem parole officer, Moist von Lipwig (a Meaningful Name if pronounced as spelled, since he's known for wearing false mustaches) can muster enough righteous indignation to remind said golem parole officer that his name is pronounced "Lipvig" with a V.
• In the Doctor Who New Adventures novel Original Sin, when Chris Cwej is assigned to be Adjudicator Roz Forrester's squire, it's Roz who explains to her superior that his surname is pronounced "Shvey". However, when Roz actually meets Chris, he tells her that he pronounces it "Kwedge", because it's simpler.
• Orson Scott Card does this in both Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. In Ender's Game, Ender is taught to pronounce Bonzo's name with a long O sound; in Ender's Shadow, Sister Carlotta verbally points out that Achilles' name is pronounced the French way. (The latter enables her to infer that the person speaking to her learned Achilles' name by reading it, not hearing it.)
• Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: The prequel "Ill Met in Lankhmar" depicts the first proper meeting between the two main characters, with the following dialogue:
  Fafhrd: Name's Fafhrd. Ef ay ef aitch ar dee.
  Gray Mouser: Gray Mouser. Excuse me, but how exactly do you pronounce that? Faf-hrud?
  Fafhrd: Just Faf-erd.
  Gray Mouser: Thank you.
• In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione pronounces her name correctly for Viktor Krum, a foreign student, as he's unfamiliar with it. Author J. K. Rowling wrote this in because many fans pronounced the name incorrectly, though this became rather less of a problem once the films started releasing. (Goblet of Fire having been released a little less than a year-and-a-half before the first film.)
• Lord Faucet from The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place insists his name is pronounced ''Fausay".
• In The Name Jar, Unhei, a Korean transfer student, tries to tell kids on the bus her name is pronounced "Yoon-hye".
• The Name of the Wind uses the Framing Device of the unusually named protagonist Kvothe recounting his story to Chronicler, so his description of the correct pronunciation is one of several interjections to make sure Chronicler is recording his words satisfactorily.
• Louis Sachar:
  • After Sachar found out that schoolteachers using his books have a tendency to pronounce his surname "say-char", he added a note to his "About the Author" page that it's "sacker", like sacking the quarterback.
  • Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger: Mrs. Drazil includes a mnemonic device for her surname's pronunciation when she introduces herself: "My name is Mrs. Drazil, and I'm not from Brazil." This mostly just confuses the students: one of them conflates "Brazil" with "brassiere".
• To Shape a Dragon's Breath: Anequs corrects Frau Kuiper about how her name is pronounced when they meet—ahn-eh-KOOS, not ANNA-kiss. The front of the book also says how to pronounce many of the names and terms.
• Welcome To Wonderland: In the first book, Home Sweet Motel, the Wonderland Motel is visited by a man named Mr. Pompano. Whenever they say it as it's spelled, he responds "It's Pom-PAN-o.".

Live-Action TV

• The Amanda Show: People call the mobster Tony Pajamas "Tony Pa-JAM-uhs". He's quick to correct them with "Pa-JAH-muhs!"
• This is almost Wojo's catchphrase on Barney Miller — full name Wojciehowicz. He repeatedly insists that "you say it like it's spelled!" when people unfamiliar with Polish inevitably mangle it.
• A Running Gag on Brooklyn Nine-Nine is Boyle correcting Jake's pronunciation of the name of his adopted son Nikolaj — only both are pronouncing it the same. This was a bit of a developing joke, as in early episodes, Jake actually was saying it wrong (NICK-o-laj instead of NEEK-o-laj), but continued getting corrected thank you after he got it right. Of course, it developed even further when Boyle met his son’s biological father, who corrected HIM on the name, despite their identical pronunciation.
• The Cry of Mann: Downplayed as a Running Gag in the series, and overlaps with Insistent Terminology. Characters will repeatedly introduce themselves as "X, like the Y", in order to help people pronounce their name- most commonly, it's "Jouglat, like the plant". One caller even got in on the action, introducing himself as "Heath, like the candy bar".
• In Dad's Army, Captain Mainwaring often has to tell people his surname is pronounced "Mannering".
• Good Luck Charlie:
  • A police officer claims that his name is pronounced "SNOO-TAY".
  • Dr. Tish Tushy helps Teddy pronounce her name properly by emphasizing the "Tuh" in "Tushy." It doesn't make Teddy feel any more comfortable with the name.
• In Goliath, Patty Solis-Papagian is often correcting how others pronounce her last name. (For starters the "g" is soft.)
• Hannah Montana: In "Ready, Set, Don't Drive", Miley is pulled over by a police officer named Diaria. She apologizes to him, assuming it's pronounced as "diarrhea", but he corrects her saying it's pronounced "Dee-are-ee-ah".
• PR agent Cliff Whitely from Horrible Histories always has to remind people that his name is pronounced "White-LEE", not "White-LIE".
• In Keeping Up Appearances, Hyacinth Bucket is insistent that her surname is pronounced "bouquet", like a bunch of flowers.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: In "Signature", strip club owner Levander (who happens to be wearing a lavender suit) bristles when he is called "Lavender": "It's La-VAN-der. Do I look like a damn flower to you?"
• Played for Laughs in the Late Night arc of the season 3 of Louie, while Louie is waiting to meet Jack Dall, the CBS executive.
  Jack's Receptionist: It's pronounced "Dall".
  Louie: Dall?
  Receptionist: DALL.
  Louie: Dall.
  (Closeup shot of the receptionist suddenly has a different actress)
  Jack's Receptionist: Dall.
  Louie: Dall?
• Married... with Children: When Kelly tries out for a spokesmodelling gig in "Kelly Bounces Back", the woman running the casting, Miss Beck (played by Tina Louise), calls for one of the other girls, "Incense Berkowitz". The girl says it's pronounced "In-SAHNS", and Miss Beck just calls "Next!"
• A sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus had a plastic surgeon named Raymond Luxury Yacht (played by Graham Chapman), who pronounces his name "Throatwarbler Mangrove".
• In the second episode of Ms. Marvel (2022), Kamala (after discovering that she has superpowers) gains enough confidence to politely tell the teacher who always greets her as "Camelia", "Actually, I've been meaning to tell you for years, it's pronounced 'Ka-ma-la'."
• In Odd Squad, Mr. Ohlm tells the Main 4 that his first and last name is pronounced "Ohlm". Olympia in particular doesn't get it.
• Saturday Night Live:
  • One sketch has Jon Hamm and singer Michael Bublé doing a TV spot for their new restaurant that serves "fine pork dishes and sparkling Champagne", Hamm & Bublé, the latter of which Jon pronounces like "bubbly". Michael corrects him: "Actually, it's pronounced BOO-blay," but Jon counters, "Well, Boo-blay doesn't work, so now it's pronounced Buh-blee."
  • In a Shout-Out to Liza Minnelli, Saoirse Ronan's monologue has her sing the correct pronunciation of her first name to the audience. People still pronounce it like "Cersei." Then Beck Bennett jumps in to clarify how his name is pronounced, even though nobody was confused about it.
  • Easily mangled or ridiculed names were the whole basis of the "Baby Names" sketch, from September 26, 1992; at the end of the sketch, the father-to-be (Nicholas Cage) turns out to be named "Asswipe Johnson," pronounced "Os-wee-pay."
• In Scrubs, a recurring doctor with a prominent goatee often gets called "Dr. Beardface". His name is actually Dr. Beardfacé, and he's annoyed when his name is mispronounced.
  Beardfacé: It's "Beard-fa-SAY", dammit!
• Sesame Street: Big Bird almost never got Mr. Hooper's name right, often calling him by some other "-ooper" sounding name (usually "Mr. Looper"), prompting the shopkeeper to correct him in response; however, he's never mad at him.
• Smart Guy: Mr. Ferret, T.J.'s smarmy co-worker in "Working Guy". "It's Fer-ray," not Fer-ret (as T.J. derisively mispronounces it as).
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Child", Pulaski pronounces Data's name as "dah-tuh", causing him to correct her. She asks what the difference is, and he replies, "One is my name. The other is not."
• Ted Lasso: Thierry Zorreaux is referred to by his last name, and has to correct people who pronounce it "Zorro" and not "Zo-ROW".

Music

• As he pointed out in his Behind the Music episode, Leif Garrett's first name is actually pronounced "Layf".
• DROELOE is pronounced “drew-lou” or “drü-lü,” not “dro-low.” (It means “wasted” in Dutch.) The most common English pronunciation of it is the latter, though, and it’s enough of a misconception that they’ve made shirts with “Pronounced Drew-Lou” on them.
• In Liza Minnelli's 1972 concert Liza with a "Z", Liza sings the title song to explain that her name is pronounced like "Ly-zah," not "Lee-sah." It gets more wacky when she explains how to pronounce her surname.
  It's Liza with a "Z", not Lisa with an "S",
  'Cause Lisa with an "S" goes sss not zzz
  It's Z instead of S, Li instead of Lee
  It's simple as could be — see, "Liza"!

Music Videos

• The music video for Lari White's "Take Me", opens with her trying to get a child to pronounce her name correctly (Lah-Ree).

Professional Wrestling

• When Fandango first debuted he refused to wrestle against anyone unless people pronounced his name right (Fahn-Dahn-Gohh, not Fan-Dang-Oh). He even corrected the ring announcer after he had taken a savage beating!
  Fandango: No, no, no. It's Faaaaaaaaahn-daaaaaaaaaahn-gooooooooooh. You have to breathe the A's.

Puppet Shows

• The host of That Puppet Game Show is Dougie Colon, who insists on his surname being pronounced "Cologne". Ian the Armadillo always pronounces it "Colon", and is convinced that Dougie finds this endearing.

Roleplay

• We Are All Pokémon Trainers: It's Colton Kendall REE-vuhr (rhymes with fever), and after being subject to this herself from Kamui (and given her linguistic propensity), Kimberly Bond is not going to let anyone forget it.
  • If she's not there, then Kendall himself is usually the one to do it for them— but only when asked. Laurie Hitoki's Sandslash, D'Autry, mispronounced his last name as "Reh-VAY" (as in the French word for "to dream"— he's fluent in Kalosian but not in English in terms of reading), and after being asked for the correct pronunciation...
  Kendall: (in annoyance) #2 out of 5,000+... ^note  Kimberly Bond was the first person to ask for his surname's pronunciation, and her and Christine (Mitchell Rhodes' Chimecho) are the only two people to ask him about said pronunciation directly to his face out of 5,000+ people who have sent emails about Kendall's book. It's like "reaper", but with a different letter in the middle.
  • In response, Hetfield the Beldum— ever The Perfectionist— points out that due to the English language's orthographies, anyone who saw the name "Rever" first would likely pronounce it like "never" (unless they got lucky) and anyone who heard the name first would spell it with an A. He then insists that Kendall should do the easy thing and smack the front of the Prax Obscura with a pronunciation guide (despite Kendall's desire not to do so).
• Speaking of which, the X is silent. According to Word of God, it is the PRAH (rhymes with "bra") Obscura.

Theatre

• 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: Admiral Cockburn explains how his name is pronounced:
  And "Co'burn", not "Cockburn";
  Though for that you are excused.
  'Tis spelled c-o-c-k
  But only half the cock is used.
• William Barfée from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee often has his name mispronounced as "Barfy", and he is always quick to correct such instances ("It's Bar-FAY").
• Jasper in Deadland: "My name is Ammut. Like 'Dammit'."
• Wicked: "My name is GAH-linda, with a GAH!" (and later, ""In honor of Dr. Dillmond, I officially change my name! From now on, I will be known as Glinda, without the GAH, because that's how he always pronounced it.")

Video Games

• Best of Three: The reason Grant couldn't connect with Helen is because he had the wrong impression of her last name. He thought it was "Sockis", and kept looking under S in the phone book, while it's actually "Tsakis". Helen has to spell it out for him.
• Deltarune:
  • In the first chapter, Seam explains to Kris that their name is pronounced "Shawm" (similarly to Sean). They follow that up with, "And this is my little Seap" ("Shop").
  • In chapter 2, Rouxls Kaard clarifies that his first name is, in fact, pronounced "Rules". The music that plays during the simultaneous battle and game of "Houses" near the end of the castle is itself called "It's Pronounced "Rules"". Further hinted at when Rouxls becomes a part of the player's inventory at the start of the chapter, becoming a literal "Rules Card".
• Monkey Island: In The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush misreads Madame Xima's name as "Madame X-ima" (like "eczema"). She corrects him, saying, "ZEE-mah", and he sticks to the correct pronunciation.
• An optional conversation in Psychonauts 2 has Razputin asking Milla Vodello for clarification on how to pronounce her name. Milla confirms that the actual pronunciation is "Mi-LA" (short for "Camilla"). However, she also accepts the "Mi-YA" pronunciation most people use, because on her first official day as a Psychonaut, that was the pronunciation Sasha Nein used, and she thought it was so cute that she didn't correct him.
• In Red Embrace: Hollywood, Saorise tells the MC how to pronounce her name at their first meeting — sha-reez.
• Super Lesbian Animal RPG: When Javis first introduces himself to the party after they wrecked his dungeon, he makes sure they refer to him properly because people are always getting his name wrong.
  Melody: Um, excuse me. I don't think we caught your name.
  Javis: My name is Javis. Not "Jarvis". Javis. J-A-V-I-S. Everyone always gets it wrong. You may also refer to me as "sir" if you wish to grovel.
• Wario: Master of Disguise: After Wario mangles Carpaccio's name several times, Carpaccio enunciates it for him:
  Carpaccio: "Car", as in "car", and I got a nice one. "Pac", as in "posh", which my mansion is. "Cio", which rhymes with "B.O.", which is what YOU got! Seriously bud, shower much?

Webcomics

• Dumbing of Age: When Joyce meets Raidah for the first time, she sounds out "Rah-ee-dah" for the audience's benefit.
• 5er0 in Schlock Mercenary gets annoyed when people call him "Zero". His name is pronounced "Vernon": the "5" replaces the Roman numeral "V", and the "0" is pronounced "none".
• Sluggy Freelance has Dr. Haught-Sheik, whose name is mispronounced "Hot-Chick" and "Hoochie" by other characters, much to her annoyance.
• One instalment of Three Panel Soul has Jess attempting to learn to correctly pronounce the surname of her roommate, Dominic Nguyen (AKA Shirt Guy Dom), with mixed success. In the last panel, he tells Jess not to worry about it and say "Win".

Web Videos

• For a while, fans of Bobsheaux have wondered how "Bobsheaux" is pronounced. He explains in his Ringing Bell review that it's pronounced "Bob Show".
• An exchange between Freeza and Trunks in Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
  Trunks: So, you must be Fry-Zah.
  Freeza: Actually, it's Lord Free-Zah.
  Trunks: Really? Then why is there an "i" in it?
  Freeza: There isn't.
  Trunks: Huh. Gonna have to fix that when I get back then.
• ProZD: The sketch "having a non-white name" consists of SungWon repeatedly explaining how to pronounce his own name to a man who refuses to listen.
• Blitzo in Helluva Boss introduces his name with the clarification, "the 'o' is silent!", often to the confusion of the other party, who just assume his name is "Blitz" since he never bothers to spell his name out anyways.
• OddTube: In "20th Anniversary Video", Olympia pronounces an agent's name as "Agent Oba". She informs her that it's actually "Obaaa", pronounced in a similar manner to a sheep's cry.
• In Red vs. Blue Reconstruction, a soldier sent to retrieve Caboose is named Jones, however, his commander pronounces it "Jo-ah-nes", annoying Jones ("It's a really common name!"). Later in Recreation, CT tells one of his mooks "Great shot Jones!"; the mook responds "Thanks, but it's actually pronounced Jo-ah-nes, Sir!".

Western Animation

• Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!: A one-off character is named Rick. Not Rick, Rick. Eventually, he gets sick of correcting them and lets them just call him Rick. (Of course, they're saying it exactly the same.)
• Bobby's World: A small Running Gag in the series is that people tend to pronounce the family name as "Generic", which leads them to respond "It's GEN-eric".
• Camp Lazlo: Scoutmaster Lumpus's name is technically pronounced "LOOM-pus", but most scouts pronounce it as "LUM-pus" as it's spelt. The only ones who use the right pronunciation are Raj, Edward and Slinkman.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: Andrea Davenport makes it clear that her first name is pronounced "Ahn-dre-uh", and does not not take it well when Molly mispronounces it.
• In Hercules: The Animated Series, Trivia keeps having to correct people that his name is "try-VEE-ah".
• In Kim Possible, Kim meets her brothers' guidance counselor, named Guide.
  Kim: Miss... Guide?
  Miss Guide: "Guh-DAY", dear.
  Kim: Uh, g'day to you too.
• Krypto the Superdog: Andrea states to Kevin at least once that her name is pronounced "An-dray-ah".
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series: Dr. Hämsterviel hates when his name is mispronounced as "hamster wheel".
  Dr. Hämsterviel: It's Hom-ster-veel! Veal, like the delicious meat speck!
• My Life as a Teenage Robot: The character Theresa often spells her name as "Ptheresa", but with the P silent. Thus it's sometimes pronounced as "PUH-Theresa".
• In Sofia the First, in the first season, Sofia mispronounces Cedric's name as "Cee-dric", prompting him to correct her in annoyance. She grows out of it in later seasons.
  Cedric: It's Sed-rick, SED-rick!
• South Park:
  • Davíd Rodriguez, a boy of Mexican origin, says that his name is pronounced as "dah-veed", as that is the Spanish pronunciation. Cartman insists on pronouncing Davíd's name the English way just to be an asshole.
  • Played for Laughs with Classi, who constantly tells others that her name is said with an "i" and a little dick that hangs off the "c", bends around, and "fucks the L out of the A-S-S".
• In Superman: The Animated Series, when Superman mispronounces Mr. Mxyzptlk's name as "Mix-ill-plick", Mxyzptlk uses helpful visual aids to demonstrate that the correct pronunciation is "Mix-yes-spit-lick."
• An episode of TaleSpin features a weasel client named Weezelle. He insists that his name be properly pronounced ("wee-ZEL!"). Naturally, everyone just called him "Weasel". Eventually, this annoys him so much that he refuses to do any more work until his name is correctly pronounced.

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