How to pronounce names

Ordinary English words follow patterns you can learn — silent letters, stress, endings. Names do not. A name carries the pronunciation of the language it came from, frozen in place while its spelling was borrowed into English. So the spelling tells you where the name has been, not how it is said.

That is why sounding it out fails. The only dependable move is to hear it — and, when the name has a clear origin, to hear it in that accent. Type any name into the main tool and press Play all to compare accents.

A text-to-speech voice reads a name as if it were English, so it makes the same mistake a reader does. The buttons below play the respelling instead, which a voice says correctly.

British place names are notorious: whole syllables go unspoken. The woos-ter in Worcester, the silent middle of less-ter for Leicester — locals shorten what the map spells out.

For a person’s name, there is no “technically correct” pronunciation to appeal to over their own. If someone says their name a certain way, that is how it is said — regardless of origin, spelling or what a dictionary claims. When you are unsure, asking is never rude; getting it wrong repeatedly is.

Every word above is a button. Set the accent and voice you want on the main screen, then come back — the guides use whatever you chose. To hear two accents against each other, use Compare; to test whether you can actually hear a contrast, use the listening quiz.