Character Names in books I can’t pronounce is today’s writing prompt from Long and Short Reviews.
I don’t read fantasy or sci-fi, so most of the names I read I can pronounce, but there have been a few in literature that I’ve stumbled with over the years.
As an American, I will say unabashedly, HERMIONE GRANGER was a name I had so much difficulty with, as did my daughter, when we first read the Harry Potter series. We both thought it was pronounced HERMI-ONE ( like the number 1) until I heard JKRowling’s pronounce it on the Rosey O’Donnell show. After that we were good.
HERCULES POIROT by the amazeballs Agatha Christie. I read my first Poirot when I was 12 and thought his name was pronounced HerculEEEEZE PI-O-RATE. Nope. Not even close.
SCHEHERAZADE. Too many vowels and consonants placed too close together on this one for me to be able to pronounce it correctly until I heard it done so my a librarian.
Those are the ones I can remember from the top of my head. Let’s see what some of the other authors in this challenge have to say: L&SR
And before I forget, tomorrow night, JULY 23 I will be the featured guest on the Love Romance Reads Facebook chat because my summer book VANILLA WITH A TWIST was voted the book of the month. Hope you can join us – it promises to be fun!
Here’s the link to join: LRRBoTMChat
Peggy Jaeger, Author 
I didn’t know how to pronounce Hermione either.
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I struggled with Hermione, too!
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It’s such a misspelled name!
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Hermoine wasn’t such a problem for me and neither was Hercules Poirot because I had a librarian pronounce it for me when I said it wrong. She wasn’t mean about it, she just gently said, it’s Her-KUOOLS. I never forgot that. Mrs. Court, the librarian, was cool that way. B-)
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I had the same issue with Hermione! Scheherazade I can only pronounce because of Aladdin (it’s in one of Genie’s songs lol)!
My post
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I guess quite of few of us had trouble originally with Hermione! We all know how now. LOL Thanks for sharing. Here’s mine. https://www.tenastetler.com/character-names-in-books-i-cant-pronounce-lsrs-blog-challenge/
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Ah, I’d forgotten how many people — including me — had trouble with Hermione. I mean, once you heard it it wasn’t so bad, but…
Anyway, here’s my answer.
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I agree with you on those names. https://pmprescott.blogspot.com/2020/07/character-names-in-books-i-cant.html
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Best to give the characters with difficult names to pronounce, a simpler nickname. You can even work it into the story, with the name’s owner being told by another character that their name is too hard, so they’re gonna be called, XX. LOL.
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Weirdly, I never had any problem with those names. I think because maybe Mum knew how to say them, and I’d come across the name Hermione before Harry Potter. Must have been all those British stories I read as a kid.
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