13th April 2023

Fashion brands come from all corners of the globe, so of course, many fashion brand names are bound to throw you for a loop.

With this in mind, Business Name Generator (BNG) has taken a look at the search volume of 70 brand giants – with origins from 17 global nations – to reveal the names we struggle with the most, and how to pronounce them correctly.  

The fashion brand names consumer find the most difficult to pronounce:

Key findings includes:

• Fashion brand Hermès has been named the most commonly mispronounced fashion brand with 105,840 global search queries per year

• Four French fashion brands make the list of the most commonly mispronounced names (Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent and Givenchy)
  
  

• High-end sports car manufacturer, Porsche, has been named the most commonly mispronounced brand overall with 13,700 global search queries per month

I have included the full press release below, but please do let me know if you have any questions or need any additional information.

Best,

Kayon

The 20 world’s most mispronounced brands and how to say them

The experts at Business Name Generator have looked at popular brands across the globe to reveal which we struggle to pronounce the most, according to Google Search Volume.

• High-end sports car manufacturer, Porsche, has been named the most commonly mispronounced brand overall with 13,700 global search queries per month

• Sriracha and Godiva named the most commonly mispronounced food and drink brands

• Hyundai has seen a +483% YOY increase in search volume for its pronunciation

Well-known brands from across the globe have been placing emphasis in their marketing on the native pronunciation of their names in a bid to move away from their anglicized branding. More recently, the car manufacturer Hyundai has taken this stand which resulted in a +483% increase in pronunciation search queries on Google. 

With this in mind, Business Name Generator (BNG) has taken a look at the search volume of 70 brand giants – with origins from 17 global nations – to reveal the names we struggle with the most, and how to pronounce them correctly.  

The 20 most mispronounced global brands and how to say them

According to research, these are the 20 brands across different industries that are most commonly mispronounced around the world:

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 consumers 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 Hermès 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”.

The research found that fashion, food and drink, and automotive are the industries with the most commonly mispronounced brand names:

Sriracha and Godiva are the most commonly mispronounced food and drink brands

The sauce that is hot and tangy on the tongue ranks as the food brand most mispronounced in the ranking with 1,050 global searches per month. The vast majority of people believe Sriracha is pronounced “sir-racha”, but the proper pronunciation is actually ‘see-rotch-ah’.

Belgium chocolate brand, Godiva (go-dee-vuh), ranks second place for food and drinks commonly mispronounced with 990 monthly searches followed closely by Schwarzkopf (shwartz-kof) with 750 searches.

Automotive brands are also commonly mispronounced

Hyundai follows Porsche as the second most common car brand people mispronounce, with 7,900 monthly searches – a 483% year-on-year increase thanks to a recent marketing campaign highlighting the pronunciation to be “hun-day” not “hi-yun-die”.

German car brands Audi (o-dee) and Volkswagen (foaks-vaa-gun) make an appearance in the top five with up to 5,120 monthly search queries for its correct pronunciation.

Fashion brand names prove difficult for consumers to pronounce

Looking only at fashion brands, iconic names from France dominate the ranking. Following Hermès is Louis Vuitton in second with 8,580 monthly search queries. The brand, commonly known for its LV monogram, is correctly pronounced “loo-ee we-taahn”. 

Yves Saint Laurent (eve-sanh la-rahn) is another luxe fashion house that people outside of the French language find difficulty in saying, with 5,120 monthly “how to say / pronounce” searches. Italian brand Versace (vur-sah-chay) also makes the top 5 with 4,990 monthly searches for its pronunciation.

Which brands have you been saying wrong this whole time?

Chloe Chai, spokesperson for Business Name Generator, comments:

“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 anglicized 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.”

ENDS

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