Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • (upbeat music)

  • Hello everyone, and welcome back to English With Lucy.

  • Today, I want to talk to you about commonly-mispronounced

  • baby names that are usually given to boys.

  • So, this is a pronunciation video designed to help you with

  • your English speaking and pronunciation.

  • If you'd like to further improve that,

  • I really encourage you to check out Audible.

  • There's a link in the description.

  • You can get a 30-day free trial,

  • that's a whole free audiobook,

  • and I've got some recommendations

  • for books with British English pronunciation.

  • I've got an American English pronunciation one as well.

  • So don't miss out.

  • Right, let's get started with the video.

  • The first name that I'd like to talk about

  • is actually a Hispanic name, and it is Joaquin.

  • Joaquin, like the Walking Dead.

  • So in Spanish it should be Joaquin, but speakers of English

  • generally tend to pronounce it as Walking, Walking,

  • so Walking Phoenix, for example,

  • doesn't feel right, it doesn't roll off the tongue.

  • Number two, now some of you are going to laugh

  • at this one because you will know how to pronounce it

  • but I honestly, for the majority of my childhood

  • thought that this was pronounced as Seen, Seen,

  • so you know the actor Sean Bean, I thought he was

  • Seen Bean, but yes, it should be pronounced Sean.

  • The next one, now this just depends on the parents,

  • it could be Steffen, and it could be Steven.

  • It's up to them, so just ask with this one.

  • Now the next one is a little bit confusing

  • because it could be anything.

  • So you are likely to mispronounce it, and that's why

  • it's best just to ask the person how they pronounce

  • their name.

  • It could be Elias, it could be Ellias, and it could be

  • Elius.

  • Are those just all the variations there?

  • I guess you could say Eelias as well,

  • just ask.

  • The next one, anything beginning with an X

  • is difficult, this one is normally pronounced Zander,

  • Zander.

  • Next one we have is actually pronounced with an X,

  • and that is Exaveeay, Exaveeay.

  • But you could meet someone called Zaveeay as well.

  • What about this one?

  • Is it Noel like Christmas?

  • It could be, I have met somebody called Noel before,

  • but she was female, and normally the male version of this

  • name is Nole, Nole.

  • Now this one is just the Irish version of Owen, Owen.

  • And I remember, does anyone remember Eoghan Quigg?

  • He was an X Factor participant in 2000 and something

  • and I thought he was so handsome.

  • Yeah, I remember reading his name and thinking Yohan,

  • but no, Owen apparently.

  • Now the next one, is it Louie, or is it Louis?

  • You're going to have to ask the person

  • because it all depends on what their parents

  • decided to call them, sorry guys, that one's

  • a bit of a cop-out.

  • The last one we have is Jaden.

  • We know it now because of Jayden Smith,

  • but a few years back people were pretty confused

  • and we were hearing Jarden, Jadden,

  • but no, apparently it should be Jayden.

  • All right guys, that's it for the pronunciation

  • lesson today, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope

  • you learned something.

  • Again, if you have a name that is commonly

  • misspelt, or mispronounced, put it in the comments

  • and let me sympathise with you.

  • Mine's very easy to pronounce, although I do get

  • a lot of my students calling me Lucky,

  • or misspelling it with an S, which confuses

  • me so much because the channel name is English with Lucy,

  • it's right there, I say it for you, and I write it for you,

  • so really, it's just careless.

  • But that being said, don't forget to connect with me

  • on all of my social media, I've got my Facebook,

  • my Instagram, and my Twitter, and I will see you soon

  • for another lesson.

  • (kissing noise)

  • (upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it