LONDON -- It turns out Voldemort isn't the only name giving readers trouble. Don Quixote, Daenerys Targaryen and even Violet Beauregarde have been revealed as characters whose names are commonly mispronounced, sometimes in quite spectacular fashion.
Hermione from Harry Potter, Poirot and Oedipus are also among the top ten mispronounced literary names in a new poll from audio books company Audible.
Beowulf and Smaug from The Hobbit are featured too, proving it doesn't matter if the book was written hundreds or thousands of years ago - they can still cause trouble.
The study polled 2,000 people aged 18 to 65 and found that 39% admitted to having pronounced the names of literary characters incorrectly.
“Interpretations of names are influenced by different forms of language, accents and methods of writing, which in turn impacts the way they are pronounced," Professor John Sutherland, Lord Northcliffe professor emeritus of modern English literature at University College London said.
“The research shows that some names are much harder than others to translate from the page to spoken word. Although there is ongoing debate about the correct pronunciation of names, many foreign names have been anglicised to fit our native tongue. Names such as Don Quixote should retain their original pronunciation as Don Kee-Hoh-Tee to avoid confusion.”
Here's the top ten.
1 - Don Quixote
Cervantes' protagonist in Don Quixote is pronounced ‘Don-Key-Hoh-Tee’, not ‘Don Quicks-Oat.' 44% of people get this wrong.
2 - Daenerys Targaryen
28% can't get the mother of dragons' from Game of Thrones' name right, opting for ‘Dee-Nay-Ris ‘Targ--Ahh-Ruh-Yen’ over the more correct ‘Duh-Nair-Ris’ ‘Tar-Gair-Ee-In.’
3 - Oedipus
Sophocles' infamous character from Oedipus Rex is pronounced ‘Ee-Di-Pus’, not 'Oh-Eh-Di-Pus.' 32% struggle with that.
4 - Hermione
The Harry Potter heroine pronounces her name ‘Her-My-Oh-Knee’, not ‘Her-Mee-Own’, to the surprise of 22%.
5 - Beowulf
16% of readers struggle with this one, apparently. The eponymous hero is pronounced ‘Bay-Oh-Woolf’, not ‘Bee-Oh-Wulf.’
6 - Poirot
Unbelievably, some 15% of readers think Agatha Christie's detective is called 'Poy-Rot' instead of 'Pwa-Row.'
7 - Smaug
It's the desolation of ‘Sm-Owg’, not ‘Sm-Org,’ that takes place in Tolkien's Hobbit world.
8 - Voldemort
As we learnt recently, the 't' is silent.
9 - Violet Beauregarde
Go for ‘Vie-Ah-Let’ Bore-R-Garrr’ and not ‘Bore-Ruh-Gard’ if you want to stay on the impatient girl from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory's good side.
10 - Piscine Patel
The Life of Pi character is known as Piss-Een Pat-El, not ‘Pis-Kine Pat-il.' 11% get it wrong.