Irish names among the top 10 hardest words for British people to pronounce

One Irish name, in particular, took the top spot.

A ranking of the hardest words for British people to pronounce has been published and two Irish names have taken the number one and two spots on the list. As reported by The Times, a study from casino operator Slotbox analysed average Google search terms over the past year to discover the words British people most struggle to say. Topping the list was the Irish name Aoife (ee·fuh), which saw 9,000 searches a month. In the second position with 7,000 searches a month was another Irish name - Saoirse (sur·shuh). Coinciding with news events, the third and fourth positions were taken by Omicron (aa·muh·kraan) and Kyiv (keev). Meanwhile, the Brazilian fruit acaí (ah·sigh·ee) found itself in fifth place. Amongst the rest of the top 10 were two other Irish names - Niamh (neeve) and Siobhán (shiv·awn). “This list might highlight how many of us have been wrongly pronouncing everyday words without realising, and even worse, it highlights our mispronunciations of names," a Slotbox spokesperson said. "The influence of current events can also be seen, with many Brits wanting to find the correct pronunciation of Kyiv and Omicron to involve them in topical conversation.” You can see the list of the top 10 most mispronounced names below:

• Aoife
• Saoirse
• Omicron
• Kyiv
• Acaí
• Niamh
• Siobhán
• Gyros (yee·ros)
• Nguyen (n·win)
• Schedule (shed·yul)

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Originally published January 23, 2023.