People with difficult names to pronounce must get so tired of explaining. It probably takes a lot off your plate to just accept whatever way people want to say it and move on with your life instead of correcting every single person.
Charlize Theron clearly subscribes to that school of thought, because it turns out nobody has been saying her name correctly this entire time.
Charlize is Hollywood royalty at this point.
Her work in Monster, Mad Max: Fury Road, Snow White and The Huntsman, Bombshell and tons more smash hits in Hollywood have cemented her as a household name.
Unfortunately, that name has proven to be very troublesome for everyone to pronounce.
There has been debate over her name for years.
Although “Charlize” doesn’t tend to stump most people (although I’ve heard some people say it like the possessive proper noun “Charlie’s”), her surname definitely does.
While the most common pronunciation of her last name is probably “Ther-own,” there have been some people who were convinced it was actually “Ther-IN.”
But as it turns out, neither of those are right.
Wait, what?
You mean when I argued with my friends about how to say her last name, it was all pointless because neither of us had it right?
Yes, that’s exactly what it means, as a recent interview with her has shown.
While being introduced on *The One Show*, one of the hosts pronounced her name Charlize Teh-ron.
The host then confirmed: “We’ve had a thing about your name today. Am I saying it right?”
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Charlize responded “Yes, fantastic,” but it turns out that she was just being polite, as the discussion about her name’s pronunciation continued.
“Honestly, the truth of the matter is [that neither version is] even remotely close to the real pronunciation,” Charlize revealed.
When the host asked to hear the real pronunciation, Charlize explained it’s actually pronounced like the word “Throne” with a rolled or lilted “r” sound, because it’s a French name.
Well, now we know! Have you been saying it correctly? Let us know in the comments!
“I was worried about this today,” the host said.
“We were talking about it and everyone calls you Charlize The-RON and I was going no, I’m pretty sure it’s Charlize TEH-Ron. But you’re quite calm about people saying it in a different way,” she continued, which was when Charlize dropped the bomb.
Some fans found the whole interview pretty awkward.
“Poor Charlize Theron being asked how to pronounce her name on The One Show. It’s Saoirse Ronan all over again,” one fan tweeted .
For the record, if you’ve been wondering, Saoirse is pronounced “sir-sha” — it’s an Irish name!
A few fans felt that it must’ve been tiring for Charlize.
“Nothing like saying hello to someone by debating how to say their name for five minutes in front of them,” one tweet read .
Charlize probably has to deal with this conversation all the time, so we wouldn’t blame her if she were a bit tired of it!
Regardless of how we’ve been saying her name, Charlize always accepted the mispronunciations with grace!
Maybe she subscribes to the school of thought that whatever people say about you, it doesn’t matter as much as the fact that they’re talking about you in the first place!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go practice pronouncing “Theron” right in the mirror.
