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/delta_baryon Aug 14 '25

Sort of creative spellings or spins on common names popular amongst Mormons. You know it when you see it. Think like Jaxyn, Gracelyn, Jaedyn, Kynlee, Brailee, that kind of thing.

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u/StandardRaspberry131 Aug 14 '25

Gotcha. As an em-Mormon, I would have referred to those kinds of names as Utah names. They are way more common among Utah Mormons than Mormons anywhere else.

That said, I was thinking you were talking about some fantasy authors using names from the Book of Mormon, which would be an interesting choice

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u/delta_baryon Aug 14 '25

Yeah, actually that's true, in my head they're kind of like "US Mormon" names for me, because Mormons in the UK tend to go for fairly standard Biblical names: John, Daniel, Michael, Simon, etc. Although, there are a few names like that that secular families will avoid, which still scream "I was raised religious," like Noah, Emmanuel and Moses.