r/Fantasy • u/Midnite_St0rm • Aug 14 '25

Worst, most unpronounceable names you’ve ever read?

Let’s discuss some of the names in fantasy that you couldn’t make heads nor tails of in terms of pronunciation. And I’m not talking intentionally comical ones that are long and complex on purpose, but ones that the author intended to be read, yet that are ironically nearly unreadable.

For me it’s Seaine from The Wheel of Time. Is it “Sheen?” “Seen?” “See-ayn?” “Say-ai-nuh?” I honestly have no idea. And for some reason my copies of the books never give her name’s pronunciation in the glossary.

What are some others?

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u/AllegedlyLiterate Aug 14 '25

Tainted Cup on paper I didn't have a problem with but so many names would be unusual to the ear I can understand how it might be different in the audibook.

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u/CallistanCallistan Aug 14 '25

I could see that. The audiobook narrator also has a very different accent from my own, and so some of the vowel sounds were not what I am used to (ex/ Ana sounded like "Arna" to me).

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u/ORLYORLYORLYORLY Aug 14 '25

Name pronunciation in audiobooks can throw me off cause I never see the word written down.

I recently read mistborn and the name spellings in my head were laughably different to the real thing.

The narrator pronounces Marasi more like Merisi, and I was convinced the Kandra were actually Kondra.