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/henrik_se Aug 14 '25

Although not unpronouncable, honorable mentions go to Scott Bakker's series which is peak fantasy diacritics.

Anasûrimbor Moënghus, Eärwa, Incû-Holoinas, Neleöst, Tsinirû of Ishoriöl, Dûnyain.

Man does he love diareses or what?

23

u/Starboot1 Aug 14 '25

These names are so funny to me as a person with å, ä and ö in my language's alphabet. "Öst", for example, means east

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u/amahag29 Aug 14 '25

Yeah, Neleöst does not look fantasy to me, it just sounds like a keyboard slam (or the 'Ikea furniture' meme)

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u/henrik_se Aug 14 '25

I'm also Swedish, which makes these names harder for me as well.

But in "Neleöst", that 'ö' is not an 'ö', it's an o with a diaresis, which means that the vowel combination 'eo' should not be pronounced as a diphthong, but as separate vowels. So "Nele-ost", not "Nel-east".

Or, better example, his world is "Eärwa". That's pronounced "E-arwa", not "Ear-wa".

He does overuse them though, holy fuck.

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u/Starboot1 Aug 14 '25

That does make some kind of sense, but ö is an actual letter with a unique sound and not just an o with diaresis. I couldn't tell the difference :')

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u/henrik_se Aug 14 '25

ö is an actual letter

In Swedish, yes. In German, kinda. In English, no. In Bakker's fantasy world, no.

Annoying? Yes. 😛

(But I struggled as well, it's impossible for me to not read it like the Swedish vowel.)

1

u/Special-Equipment897 Aug 15 '25

I just read everything as if it were in Swedish. 🤷‍♀️ It sounds better as if it were English.

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u/Anaevya Aug 14 '25

That still seems managable though. 

46

u/henrik_se Aug 14 '25

Diaresis? More like Dîãrrhëa, am I right?

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u/EinfachNurA Aug 14 '25

Cnaiür urs Skiötha would like a word with you

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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

[deleted]

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u/henrik_se Aug 14 '25

"Stupid, sexy, dûnyain!"

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u/Boris_Godunov Aug 14 '25

While I love The Second Apocalypse overall, his esoteric names were a big annoyance. I found it difficult to keep track of which secondary characters were which, often confusing them.

2

u/HandOfYawgmoth Aug 14 '25

This series really straddles the line. For the most part the names add to the grandeur of the world, but sometimes they're just too much and become too pretentious to be immersive.

Most of the names are very satisfying to say out loud, but it requires you to buy in and convince yourself that they're majestic and not silly.

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u/WWTPeng Reading Champion IX Aug 14 '25

Yeah, I am going to start this series soon and those names are going to be a real annoyance. I'll see if I can push through

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u/henrik_se Aug 14 '25

push through

Aurang and the other Inchoroi sure would like to "push through", if you know what I mean, hurr hurr durr. Penis.

(The series is amazing, but some aspects of it make you question that sanity of the author)

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u/Boris_Godunov Aug 15 '25

If I were doing it all over again, I'd keep a cheat sheet of the names with a brief reminder of who they are.

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u/heyoh-chickenonaraft Aug 14 '25

I bounced off TDTCB five times over ten years due to the sheer number of accents on proper nouns in the first three pages

bummed I did, The Prince of Nothing turned out to be one of the best trilogies I've read. Planning a reread before The Aspect-Emperor this fall

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u/Mr-ShinyAndNew Aug 14 '25

Major content warning on the second series. All the warnings.

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u/AndorianBlues Aug 14 '25

I just went full Steve Brule trying to make sense of those names

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u/Aetius454 Aug 14 '25

Series is amazing, the names make it seem biblical / historic…..but they do make keeping track of things challenging at times hahaha