It turns out some of us have been saying the names of our favourite brands wrong for years.
From Nike to Nutella and IKEA, there's a whole host of brand names that can cause confusion when it comes to the correct pronunciation. Business Name Generator (BNG) has taken a look at the search volume of 70 brand giants to find the names we struggle with the most, and how to pronounce them correctly.
In the top three, Porsche, Nike, and Hermés all had the highest number of searches for pronunciation, both monthly and yearly.
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The luxury and high-end sports car manufacturer, Porsche, has been named the most commonly mispronounced brand overall with 13,700 per month searching for “how to pronounce / how to say Porsche”. Commonly mistaken for Italian, Porsche is in fact German and means “offerings” in English. The correct pronunciation is “porsh-aa”.
The sportswear brand, Nike, follows in second with 10,780 monthly searches made by customers to clarify its true pronunciation. If you have been saying it so that it rhymes with “bike”, then you have been pronouncing it wrong. It is actually pronounced as “nigh-key”, rhyming with “spikey”.
Competitor sportswear brand Adidas has also had consumers mispronounce its name, ranking in 12th with 4,320 monthly searches.
Ranking third on the list is the iconic fashion brand Hermés with 8,820 searches per month for the correct pronunciation (over 105,000 searches per year). The name of this brand can be difficult if you don't speak French, however, for future reference, it is “air-mez”.
Chloe Chai, spokesperson for Business Name Generator, said: “Frequently, brand names are mispronounced when they are in a language or dialect that is different from the speaker's native language. It is not uncommon for individuals to be unaware that they are mispronouncing a brand name, especially if global marketing campaigns have promoted anglicised versions of the name.
"This is something that brands like IKEA and Hyundai are striving to move away from. When devising a name for your business, marketers must consider its phonetics and ensure that it can be easily pronounced and remembered across various languages and cultures.
"This can be achieved through thorough research, testing, and localisation efforts. Ultimately, a brand name that is easy to pronounce and recall can contribute to heightened brand awareness, customer loyalty, and overall success in the market.”
Here are the top 20 most mispronounced brand names:
- Porsche ('Porsh-aa')
- Nike ('Nigh-key')
- Hermés ('air-mez')
- Louis Vuitton ('Loo-ee we-taahn')
- Hyundai ('Hun-day')
- IKEA ('Ih-kay-ah')
- Audi ('O-dee')
- Yves Saint Laurent ('Eve-sahn la-rahn')
- Givenchy (Jhee-von-shee')
- Versace ('Vur-sah-chay')
- Peugeot ('Poo-zho')
- Adidas ('Add-dee-dass')
- Bvlgari (Buhl-guh-ree')
- Gucci ('Goo-chi')
- Nutella ('New-tell-uh')
- Huawei (Wah-way')
- Balenciaga ('Bah-len-see-ah-gah')
- Moschino ('Mos-key-no')
- Tag Heuer ('Tag-hoy-yer')
- Adobe ('Uh-doe-bee')
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