These Are the Brand Names You’re Pronouncing Wrong

Some of the most well-known brands in the world are also some of the hardest to pronounce, according a new survey.

Solopress, a UK-based printing company, looked at the most commonly mispronounced brands based on Google search volume data, with the athletic shoe and apparel giant Nike topping the charts globally.

“A company’s name is often undervalued as a brand asset but in fact is one of the most important,” said Solopress head Richard Kemp.

Based on how often users ask Google for the correct way to pronounce a brand name, the top 10 searches are as follows, per Solopress:

Brands with names that do not originate in the English language, like Louis Vuitton and Hyundai, are among the most challenging, Solopress found.

Nike — a consumer brand so well-known that most people can identify it just by its logo — was the most commonly mispronounced brand, with an ongoing debate of “Naik” versus “Nai-kee.” Founder Phil Knight confirmed the latter, two-syllable option in 2014.

For travel and hospitality, Chipotle was the most commonly mispronounced. The brand is searched over 11 times more monthly compared to Uber, the second most mispronounced brand in that category.

“For travel brands, their aim is to cross international borders,” Solopress said in a press release. “However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that their brand names travel well and are pronounced as they should be across the globe.”

The top travel and hospitality brand mispronunciations are:

In the food and beverage category, the Golden Arches took the crown.

“As the study takes into account worldwide search volumes, we can assume that these searches come from an international audience,” Solopress said.

McDonald’s was searched two times as often as the Mars candy company, and over 20 times as often as KFC and Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons.

For media and entertainment, Apple was not as easy as pie for global consumers.

“While these popular brands go to great lengths to keep us entertained, it seems that thousands of their audience members worldwide are entertaining themselves each month by trying to pronounce their brand name,” Solopress said.

The top mispronounced media and entertainment brands are:

While internet users flock to Google to find out how to pronounce something, the search giant itself is actually the most mispronounced tech brand, the survey found.

In the automotive category, carmakers hailing from Europe and Asia are the most queried, led by South Korean juggernaut Hyundai.

“While BMW seems quite simple, in its native German, the name sounds more like “bay-em-vay”, causing almost 2,000 searches for the correct pronunciation each month worldwide,” Solopress said.

Solopress suggests brands keep their names to four syllables or fewer and make sure “it is easy to spell and satisfying to say.”

“Although pronunciation errors are never completely avoidable, especially when taking the international market into account, steps can be taken to keep uncertainty to a minimum,” Kemp said.