How to pronounce Spanish names

Spanish spelling is almost perfectly regular: given the rules below, you can pronounce any Spanish name you have never seen before and be right. The difficulty for English speakers is not irregularity but a few letters that systematically change sound — j, ñ, ll, x — and the habit of carrying English vowel habits into a language where five vowels stay five vowels and every syllable is fully sounded.

There is also a genuine split you should know about. In Spain, the letters z and soft c are pronounced as an English th — Barcelona becomes bar-seh-THOH-nah. In Latin America, they are an ordinary s. Neither is wrong; the th version is Castilian, the s version covers the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, about nine in ten speakers. This guide gives the s version first and notes the Castilian form where it matters.

j is h. The Spanish j, called the jota, is a strong breathy sound made at the back of the throat — the closest English gets is h. José is hoh-SAY, Javier is hah-BYER, Joaquín begins hwah-. There is no English “j” in Spanish names.

ñ is ny. The tilde is not decoration: Iñaki and España contain the same ny sound as “canyon”. ll is usually y — Sevilla is seh-VEE-ya, not seh-VEE-la.

The accent mark is the stress, and the stress is the meaning. García with the í on the i is gar-SEE-ah; without the mark it would be GAR-sya. The written accent exists to tell you where the emphasis goes, so if you see one, the stress is on that syllable, no exceptions.

x varies. In old proper names it is often an h — México is MEH-hee-koh, Ximena is hee-MEH-nah — while in modern words it is ks. You cannot predict it; with names, learn each one.

Spanish has five vowel letters and five vowel sounds — a as in “father”, e as in “they”, i as in “see”, o as in “go”, u as in “moon” — and they are pronounced the same in every word. English speakers mispronounce Spanish names mainly by doing what English does to unstressed vowels: compressing them into a grunted uh. Lucía must keep its full oo and ee; saying “loo-SYA” or “LUSH-a” loses the rhythm entirely. Spanish is syllable-timed — every syllable gets roughly equal time — so a Spanish name flows evenly, with no syllables crushed or stretched beyond the accent-marked one.

How to pronounce names — the general method for any name, in any language. Name pronunciation hub — every name guide in one place. English pronunciation for Spanish speakers — the same vowel differences from the other direction.

Read slowly first. Pronounce each syllable deliberately before trying to blend them at full speed. Rushing hides the vowel and consonant shapes your ear needs to learn.

Record yourself. Most phones have a voice memo app — record a word, then compare it to the playback here. Hearing the gap between your version and the model accent makes targeted practice far easier.

Focus on one accent. Jumping between American, British and Australian in the same session creates confusion. Pick the accent you encounter most and stick with it until the patterns feel natural.

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.