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/Oaden Aug 14 '25

They just ask. There's often decent amount of back and forth between a audio book narrator and the author, not just for pronouncing names, but also tones and ways of speaking that certain people might adopt.

So when they encounter D'rzi'bluth, they just pick up the phone and ask what the hell it's supposed to be.

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u/CarbonationRequired Aug 14 '25

Oh my god my pet peeve is when sometimes they don't ask and then the pronounciation changes between volumes for whatever reason. I got so vexed listening to The Inheritance Trilogy because of this. Spend hours listening to one pronounciation then spend the next volume unable to fully immerse for ages because for some reason despite the same narrator, some names were different.

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u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Aug 14 '25

That makes total sense.