IT Leaders’ Names We Often Misread or Mispronounce
3 minutes
Jony Ive
Yesterday’s big tech headline was Jony Ive’s promotion to Apple’s chief design officer. Chinese news outlets covered it, but most rendered his name as “Jonathan Ai-wei.” The Financial Times’ Chinese edition used “Jonathan Ai-fu,” which is closer. “Ive” rhymes with “five,” not “ivy,” and “Jony” is pronounced like “Johnny,” not “Joanie.”
Marissa Mayer
The former Google vice president and current Yahoo CEO is often rendered as “Melissa Mayer” in Chinese. It should be “Marissa Mayer.” “Mayer” rhymes with “fire,” not with “mayor.” (And while we are here, I recommend American musician John Mayer, whose music I love.)
Jeff Bezos
The founder of Amazon. The Chinese transliteration of his name is actually quite good: Bezos. Back-translating it gives the right pronunciation, “BAY-zohs,” though many Americans mispronounce it “BEE-zos.”
Peter Thiel
This PayPal Mafia heavyweight and Facebook angel investor is listed on Baidu Baike as “Peter Tai-er.” I have no idea where the “Tai” came from—does he look Thai? Last week he came to China to talk about startups (and promote his new book, Zero to One). Some tech media got the Chinese rendering right: Peter Thiel. “Thiel” sounds like “teal,” not “tile”; the first sound is a plain “t,” not the “th” in “thank.”