How to pronounce Skaters' Names

[Mathman]

I just noticed in the Olympic pair coverage that the name Minerva is pronounced Min-UR-va in American English, but something like Min-EHR-va in German.

A common Chinese name that is often mispronounced by Americans is Zhang. We can't seem to get it in our heads that it is not ZH like a French J or a voiced SH (ZH). There are many people of Chinese background living in the U.S. who spell their name Jong, Jiang, Zang, etc., depending on when they or their ancestors arrived.

My grandfather ran a general store in a small town in North Dakota in the early days of the twentieth century at a time when there was a big influx of "Russians" (actually Ukrainians and Poles and often called "Bohunks" (Bohemians)) to that area. The majority were unschooled farm laborers who could not write their name either in their own language or in English. The first thing their sponsors did was to take them down to the general store and establish a line of credit. Granddad (himself no scholar) would listen to them say their names and then try to spell what he heard phonetically as best he could. This, being the only written record available, became their official name and subsequently the name carried by their children and grandchildren going forward as Americans.

 

[Mathman]

He's Irish-American!

Just be glad his partner is named Ellie and not Siobhan (Shi-VON).

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Just be glad his partner is named Ellie and not Siobhan (Shi-VON).

Whenever people are discussing how to pronounce Irish names, I always would have brought up the name Caoimhe, which is prononced "Kee-va".

But I now have a better one.

May I present to you the 2024 Irish Advanced Novice Ladies Champion, all the way from Finland, Caoilfhionn Kavanagh. Believe it or not, her first name is pronounced "Kee-lin".



Confusingly, this is the same way that the boy's name Caolán is pronounced.

The worst of it is that I used to have a neighbour with the name Caoilfhionn. But until I came across Miss Kavanagh, I had no idea that her name was spelt that way!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Diana Delafield]

Until recently, I would have always pronounced the name Anastasia as Ann-ah-STAY-zee-ah, or --STAH-zhya. Then I heard an interview with the British female pairs skater saying her name, given by her Serbian(I think?) father is pronounced ah-NAH-sta-SEE-yah. She likes her father's nickname for her, Nastya, even though people make jokes about "being nasty" .

There were two female pairs skaters with that name in the Olympics, and I noticed the CBC commentators during the SP pronounced her name the way she said, but the other pairs girl got the pronunciation I used to use. (Incidentally, when I checked Wikipedia it said it was pronounced the old way.) During the FP, both were given the "new" pronunciation with stresses on the second and fourth syllables.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Until recently, I would have always pronounced the name Anastasia as Ann-ah-STAY-zee-ah, or --STAH-zhya. Then I heard an interview with the British female pairs skater saying her name, given by her Serbian(I think?) father is pronounced ah-NAH-sta-SEE-yah. She likes her father's nickname for her, Nastya, even though people make jokes about "being nasty" .

There were two female pairs skaters with that name in the Olympics, and I noticed the CBC commentators during the SP pronounced her name the way she said, but the other pairs girl got the pronunciation I used to use. (Incidentally, when I checked Wikipedia it said it was pronounced the old way.) During the FP, both were given the "new" pronunciation with stresses on the second and fourth syllables.

I was the exact same with that name, until I started listening to Russians saying it.

When I first joined the forum, Anastasia Martyusheva (RUS) was still competing in Pairs skating. On her social media pages, she uses "nastyjustdoit" as her address. And it took years for the penny to drop with me that "Nasty" was a diminutive of "Anastasia".

Of course, she might have been using that address for encouragement. But I have a feeling that she might have been getting some sponsorship from Nike, because as well as using it's slogan in her address, I think she was wearing a jumper with a big tick on it in her profile pic!

Anyway. Moving on to a different name and a different skater.

Apart from the fact that I would have loved to see her competing there, one of the big regrets I have about one of my favourite skaters not being at these Olympics is that I really want to know how to pronounce her name properly. All along, I have been pronouncing it the way it would be pronounced in English. But recently I started to wonder if it is pronounced a different way.

I did think of finding another athlete at these Olympics with the same name, and listening to them saying the name. After all, it is a pretty common name. But unfortunately, the only other athlete with that name at these Olympics is Italian, and I would imagine that Italians would pronounce it very differently to Russians!

Unfortunately, it is also one of the few Russian girls names that it not mentioned in this song by a guy who is from a town 10 miles from me, but who has been based in Moscow for years:

Tony Watkins - "И я вас люблю (And I Love You)"

(If you don't have time to listen to it all, you can skip the long intro and start at 1m 54s).

Enjoy!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[iluvtodd]

This is VERY helpful. Now I know how to pronounce "Gubanova" & "Kurakova" properly (and understand where the accents go)!

 

[lariko]

This is VERY helpful. Now I know how to pronounce "Gubanova" & "Kurakova" properly (and understand where the accents go0!

Basically, with any Russian name, shift the stressed syllable to where it sounds weird to an English speaker. I haven't heard a single Russian name stressed correctly by an English speaker intuitively, not sure why, even really short ones. There is, of course, an added inconveneice that Russians simplify spelling to avoid dots over e for 'yo' sound in typing which is always the stressed syllable. Metelkina is a good example.

Losing your name is a part of immigrant experience, and Malinin's team went through it twice with him to ensure his success. Skornyakov to Malinin, and Malinin to MAH-linin.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

This is VERY helpful. Now I know how to pronounce "Gubanova" & "Kurakova" properly (and understand where the accents go0!

For Gubanova, I had heard her say her name years ago when she was a kid in a video that was linked to somewhere on this forum. But I have no idea where, and I would really love to find it again, because from what I remember it was very amusing.

But I was really surprised that Katia pronounced her surname the way she did. I was expecting her to say "Kur-ak-o-va". That is, in a similar way to how Gubanova said her name. "Kur-a-ko-va" is the way I would have expected it to be said by somebody who didn't know any Russian.

If I am totally honest, I did wonder if Katia was saying it that way to make it simpler for other people to say. She does seem like the sort of person who would put her fans before herself.

But, since that is what she said, that is what I will now go back to using.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[sissy7]

I think this is the best place for this post...
For a while it really bugged by how English speaker's say Balázs's name....
then I realized how hard it is to give a comperable example in English(......cause there is none!!)
Still here is my hint for a closer correct approximation:
In Hungarian we use the same name order as the Chinese and the Japanese, so family name first, then the given name.
His family name literally means big, which in figure skating is apt for a pairs guy

N.A.GY - the A as in calm; the GY is closer to the d in dew, then the French j all English speakers use(use googe translate pronunciation for the word gyöngy, meaning pearl, it will help). GY is a single sound written with 2 letters, in the case of this family name
B.A.L.Á.ZS- the first A is like in ball, the Á is like the a in Paris if you say it in the French way, and ZS, also a sound written with 2 letters, is the French j sound

Looks like the French language is a good comparison point

 

[Mathman]

The most trouble I ever had with a name was when I served as thesis adviser to a graduate math student whose language was Xhosa. This South African Bantu language has a dozen or so different tongue-clicks that serve as additional consonant sounds that cannot be reproduced, nor even distinguish by ear, by speakers of other languages.

I tried once. She smiled indulgently and said, "Call me Kiki."

 

[Diana Delafield]

The most trouble I ever had with a name was when I served as thesis adviser to a graduate math student whose language was Xhosa. This South African Bantu language has a dozen or so different tongue-clicks that serve as additional consonant sounds that cannot be reproduced, nor even distinguish by ear, by speakers of other languages.

I tried once. She smiled indulgently and said, "Call me Kiki."

Like one of my granddaughters, who was adopted from Namibia where they speak any of several indigenous languages. She'd been named Kheti, but no one manages the sound of the first consonant. She's grown up in Canada and now Scotland, and calls herself Kitty.

 

[dorispulaski]

On Italian broadcasting, he became "Oh-shee"

You might forward the subject link to your sportscaster...

 

[bartlebooth]

You might forward the subject link to your sportscaster...

She's the same person who's convinced that “crow” rhymes with “now”, so Irish names are clearly setting the bar too high.

She massacres Neo-Latin languages as well:
Guillaume Cizeron becomes Guill-AIM Cizayron, Florent Amodio used to be Flo-RAH (no hint of nasalisation) Amo-Dieu, Javier Fernandez had his name butchered as Avi-EH, no attempt whatsoever to pronounce the Spanish J and no hint of a final R.
And with Italian skaters? She mispronounced Sarina Joos’ surname at Euros: Sarina’s father is Swiss, so the J is not pronounced as in English, but as in German. It's a lost battle.

Now, none of us is Professor Henry Higgins with his hundred and thirty vowel sounds, still we can strive for improvement, if not for perfection. Tips from native speakers are always useful.
It's great to hear skaters pronounce their own names, I've solved lots of doubts, for example it's Utana YO-shida, not Yo-SHI-da.

 

[Mathman]

Basically, with any Russian name, shift the stressed syllable to where it sounds weird to an English speaker.

That is perfectly said. As an American English speaker who is terrible at languages, I have learned that the more "right" the name sounds to me, the more wrong it actually is.

 

[mtvessel]

I'm convinced that whoever came up with the "standard" transliteration schemes for Japanese, Chinese, etc., just wanted English speakers to sound like fools.

How on earth do we spell this "Ryuichi?"

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/results/athlete-details/46227

 

[Mathman]

I'm convinced that whoever came up with the "standard" transliteration schemes for Japanese, Chinese, etc., just wanted English speakers to sound like fools.

I think it's because these transliteration schemes are created by professional linguists and scholars according to (often changing) standards of the profession -- rather than by ordinary folks who lean more toward common sense and usefulness.

 

[Diana Delafield]

I think it's because these transliteration schemes are created by professional linguists and scholars according to (often changing) standards of the profession -- rather than by ordinary folks who lean more toward common sense and usefulness.

I investigated as to why the Kazakhstan skaters have warmup jackets that say Qazaqstan on the back. In that country's case, it's a government program to gradually change their alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin, with the project to be complete by 2030. One aim is to strengthen the country's independent connections to the Western world and reduce Russian influence.

 

[Fetinia]

That is perfectly said. As an American English speaker who is terrible at languages, have learned that the more "right" the name sounds to me, the more wrong it actually is.

There now retired two Russian tennis players, Maria Sharapova whose name is pronounced ShaRAHpova (second syllabus)but always pronounced wrong Shara PO va. On the other had Svetlana Kuznetsova's name correct pronunciation is KuzneTSOva (third syllabus), but incorrectly pronounced KuzNEtsova.

 

[yuumagical]

I'm convinced that whoever came up with the "standard" transliteration schemes for Japanese, Chinese, etc., just wanted English speakers to sound like fools.

How on earth do we spell this "Ryuichi?"

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/results/athlete-details/46227

Being at a lower-intermediate level in Japanese, I am aware of three factors in Ryuichi's name that make its English transliteration confusing:

1. The Japanese "r" sound is actually pronounced somewhere in between the English "l" and "r" sounds. Since it's neither "l" nor "r," how does one write it out...?

2. The "u" in "Ryu" is actually a long u, not a short u! I'd prefer to render it as "Ryuu" or even "Ryū." I don't get why English speakers are averse to using double u's (except for vacuum!). And even though there are Japanese romanization systems that use the macron to indicate a long vowel (that straight line I typed earlier, as in Tōkyō or the island of Kyūshū) it's something that people are loath to use in print for some reason.

3. The "chi" in Japanese can also be romanized as "ti" in certain romanization systems. Although I personally don't like this, the fact that "chi" is listed among the other "t" syllables in the Japanese syllabary actually lends this romanization some credence. The way it's pronounced isn't too far from "ti" either...(But I like the way "chi" looks a lot better! )

 

[Mathman]

On the other had Svetlana Kuznetsova's name correct pronunciation is KuzneTSOva (third syllabus), but incorrectly pronounced KuzNEtsova.

OK, that just torpedoed everything I thought I had learned about the Russian language by hanging out on this board.