From Charlize Theron to Ralph Fiennes: The celebrity names were all mispronouncing

WITH Sharknado 2 premiering in the US today, some in the news.com.au office learned two surprising facts about the film’s star, Ian Ziering.

Firstly, that the man most famous for playing Steve Sanders in Beverly Hills, 90210 is now 50 years old. Don’t we feel ancient.

Second, that Ian’s first name is pronounced ‘Eye-an’. As in, rhymes with Brian.

No, we don’t know why either. But it got us thinking about the other celeb names we’re all constantly mispronouncing:

Charlize Theron

Who knew? Charlize’s (pronounced Shar-leeze) surname is pronounced Ther-in, not Ther-own. Talk show host Jimmy Fallon is one of the few to get it right, as you can see in the clip above — which Theron says is like ‘music to her ears’.

Ralph Fiennes

‘Ralph’ is a pretty hard one to mess up, right? WRONG. Ralph Fiennes pronounces his first name ‘Rafe’.

“There is a tradition in the UK of pronouncing Ralph as ‘Rafe’. I believe my father named me after my step-grandfather,” Fiennes explains in this interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Saoirse Ronan

The Irish actor, best known for roles in Hanna and Grand Budapest Hotel, is blessed with an intimidatingly vowel-heavy first name for those not well-versed in traditional Irish pronunciation. If you thought it was pronounced ‘Saaii[cough]uueeoorse’, you’d be wrong. It’s actually a much simpler SEER-sha.

Ioan Gruffudd

Now there’s a man with a strong, Welsh, impossible-to-get-right-on-first-attempt name. For the record, it’s YO-an Griffith.

Quvenzhané Wallis

The Oscar-nominated child actor is starring in the new big screen adaptation of Annie later this year, so expect to hear her first name mangled by a lot by interviewers. Here’s the correct way to pronounce Quvenzhané: Kwuh-VEN-jah-nay.

Famke Janssen

If you’re pronouncing the Dutch actor’s name phonetically, you’re doing it wrong. Try FOM-kuh Yansen on for size.

Christina Ricci

Ricci or Ritchie? Well, neither. The actor’s surname does have a ‘ch’ sound, but it’s pronounced as a more elongated ‘Ree-chee’.

Chloë Sevigny

Good evening America, I’m Chloë Sevigny. It’s recently come to my attention that a lot of you are having trouble pronouncing my name. For the record, it’s KLOW-ee SEV-in-knee. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to attend an exclusive luncheon with similarly hard-to-pronounce pals Tea Leoni (TAY-ah lee-OH-nee), Goran Visnjic (GORE-on VISH-nish) and Sade (Shar-day).

Joaquin Phoenix

We should really all know this by now, but in case you don’t: it’s Wah-keen. WAH-keen.

Fun fact: during a screening of Phoenix’s recent hit Her, this writer heard a woman in the cinema excitedly tell her friend, “Oh, I just LOVE Jar Queen Phoenix.”

So remember folks, however poorly you’ve been pronouncing any of these names, at least you’re not the lady who said “Jar Queen Phoenix” in public.

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