Travis Kelce and 'nepo baby' are among the most mispronounced names and words of 2023

SZA is the stage name of singer-songwriter Solána Imani Rowe, who's had quite a year — becoming the eighth-most streamed artist in Spotify's Wrapped for 2023. Even back in 2013, music writers were giving advice on how to pronounce it.

Pronounciation: Siz-uh

Saturn's sixth moon hit the headlines in May when NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spotted a massive plume of water, twice the length of the continental US, spurting from it. The finding suggests that the planet could potentially host life.

Pronunciation: En-seh-luh-duhs

Barbenheimer made July the month of bright pink paint, nuclear explosions, and not being sure how to say "Cillian."

The actor's title role in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" put his name back on our radars.

Pronunciation: Kil-ee-uhn

This active volcano in Mexico threatened to erupt in May, prompting authorities to raise alert levels for the millions of people living nearby.

For those unfamiliar with the native language of Nahuatl, pronouncing the volcano's name — meaning 'Smoking Hill' — could be a challenge.

Pronunciation: Poh-poh-kah-teh-peh-til

Dating Taylor Swift is a whole other level of fame, and nothing proves this more than the fact that in mid-September — the week that Kelce said he'd invited her to one of his games — Google saw a massive spike in the search term "kelce how to pronounce."

His last name can be pronounced two ways, and Travis has said both are correct!

Pronunciation: Kel-see or Kels

Iam Tongi is the stage name of William Tongi, who moved judges to tears at Season 21 of American Idol this year. In May, he became the first person from Hawaii, and the first Pacific Islander, to clinch the title.

Pronunciation: Ee-am Dong-ee

A word to describe plants that love sandy soil may be difficult to pronounce, but it certainly wasn't a spelling challenge for 14-year-old Dev Shah, who clinched the National Spelling Bee with it in June.

Pronunciation: Sam-uh-file

In November, the entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate rebuked political strategist Donna Brazile for mispronouncing his name on Real Time with Bill Maher, saying she "intentionally" did it.

Intentionally or habitually mispronouncing names has been described as a form of discrimination.

Pronunciation: Vih-vake Rah-mah-swah-me

Celebrities rushed to pay tribute to Karl Lagerfeld's cat, Choupette, at the Met Gala in May, with Jared Leto simply getting into a massive white cat costume and sending other guests wild. Doja Cat and Lil Nas X also channeled feline vibes.

Pronunciation: Shoo-pet

The second volcano to bubble its way onto the list, Kīlauea, went quiet for three months and then exploded impressively in June. Thankfully, no communities were at risk.

Pronunciation: Kil-uh-way-uh

There were also some runners-up:

Among all the fan theories surrounding the much-anticipated series finale of "Succession" in May, probably the wildest was one based around Tom Wambsgans' name, as Slate went into in great detail (there are spoilers here, for anyone still catching up).

Thankfully, we have Shiv Roy's classic quote: "Guess I just got Wambsgansed, huh?" from Season 1, to help cement the pronunciation.

Pronunciation: Woms-gans

Since the dawn of the English language, British people have fought bitterly over how to pronounce the word "scone." Homes have been wrecked, and families divided.

When King Charles III was crowned in May, he sat on the Stone of Scone as per tradition. It made matters even more complicated by offering a rare third variation to the pronunciation debate.

Pronunciation: Stown uhv skoon

As 2022 drew to a close, one term was on people's lips: nepo baby.

It had been around for a while, but a much talked-about New Yorker cover story declared 2022 as "the year of the nepo baby," causing frantic online discussion about the leg-up that famous offspring get from their famous parents.

Unfortunately, few knew how to say it, making early 2023 the age of mispronouncing nepo baby.

Pronunciation: Neh-po Bay-bee

Correction: December 11, 2023 — An earlier version of this story gave the wrong regnal number for Britain's King Charles. He is Charles III, not Charles II.