3 years today since Zelenskyy was elected, yet 94% still misspell his name

Most misspelled world leaders’ names

• Only 1 in 33 people can properly spell the name of Japan’s ex-PM: Abe Shinzō;
• Only 1 in 20 can spell Ukrainian president’s name right: Volodymyr Zelenskyy;
• Obama and Clinton are also in the top 10 most misspelled names of top world leaders today.

Of all the top global leaders, the ex-PM of Japan Abe Shinzō, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Spain’s ex-PM Pedro Sánchez, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman have the world’s most misspelled names.

According to spelling software developers at ProWritingAid (www.prowritingaid.com), most people struggle with accents, others – with foreign names in general and the cultural sensitivities involved. It is quite rare when someone spells Shinzō’ and Zelenskyy’s names right – the only two top world leaders whose names are misspelled more often than not.

Abe Shinzō

As of January 2020, Japan requested that the names of their officials should revert back to the “family first, surname last” format. This has always been the format requested by several other Asian countries, like China, South Korea and Vietnam. And so, former prime minister Shinzō Abe would then on become Abe Shinzō. However, the vast majority struggled to adapt. On average, only one in every 33 people can spell Abe Shinzō’s name in the right order and with the right accent. Excluding the accent, three more can write his name in his preferred “family first, surname last” format.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

For an entirely different reason, for every 19 people who misspell the Ukrainian president’s name, there is only one that does spell it correctly (i.e. Volodymyr Zelenskyy). The crux of the matter is both transliteration and ease. Some assume transliterating from Ukrainian is the same as from Russian. The Ukrainian passport system transliterates “Зеленський” as “Zelenskyy”, whereas, should this have been a Russian name, which it is not, it would have transliterated to “Zelenskiy”. The Ukrainian president’s office clarified this spelling conundrum shortly after his election in 2019, stating that “Volodymyr Zelenskyy” is the correct spelling, when many English-speaking journalists struggled to agree.

The vast majority of people drop a “y” at the end, while others choose the Russian transliteration of “Zelenskiy”. One person in 20 even goes as far as changing the first name to the Russian equivalent – “Vladimir”.

The BBC, The Independent, The Daily Mail opted for the shorter, most common spelling – “Zelensky”, while The Guardian and Reuters chose the Russian transliteration – “Zelenskiy”. ITV News, Sky News, Associated Press and spell the president’s preferred choice – “Zelenskyy”. The Times uses all three versions, depending on the author.

Similarly, Ukrainian authorities recently insisted on English-speaking media to use the Ukrainian transliteration for all geographical proper nouns, instead of transliterating from Russian. For instance, Kyiv should not be spelled Kiev, Odesa is not Odessa, Mykolayv is not Nikolaev, etc.

Pedro Sánchez

Spain’s former prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has the third most misspelled name. Over a quarter of people struggle with the accent in “Sánchez”. Otherwise, there are virtually no other variations of his name, as observed over a 90-day period this year.  

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

The fourth most misspelled name among top world leaders is that of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Only three quarters can spell it right. The remaining quarter largely drop the accent in “Erdoğan”, while several others forget the double “yy” – or any “y”s for that matter –  or write “Recip” instead of “Recep”. Yet again, transliteration is largely at fault, although, unlike in president Zelenskyy’s case, there should not have been any confusion as to what language it should be transliterated from. This can spill over into oral pronunciation mistakes.

In Turkish, the letter “ğ” is silent and different from the letter “g”, which is pronounced like in the English “big”, “dog” or “mug”. Again, the BBC writes the plain “g”, but news reporters do pronounce the name correctly, with a silent “ğ”. Al Jazeera, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Independent, The Economist, ITV and Sky News all drop the accent too, whereas the Guardian and the Daily Mail use the correct spelling – “Erdoğan”.

Mohammed bin Salman

Another notably often misspelled name is that of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, with one in seven people getting it wrong. The most common misspelling is “Mohammad bin Salman”, which every tenth person is guilty of, followed by those who do not double the “m” in “Mohammed”.

Surprisingly, it is not just non-English speaking leaders who get their names misspelled. US democratic presidential candidate and former first lady Hillary Clinton finds her first name lacks an “l” for every 19 correct mentions. One in 30 people still spell former American president Barack Obama’s name either without a “c” or overdo it by doubling the “r”. Other top world leaders whose names internet users and the press struggle with the most are the former Myanmar government leader, Aung San Suu Kyi; the ex-UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and Jean-Claude Juncker – the former president of the European Commission. With the latter three, people generally forget a letter, like the “i” in “Kyi”, the “h” in “Ghali” or the “c” in “Juncker”.

A spokesperson for ProWritingAid commented on the findings: “It is fascinating how much the English-speaking world struggles with foreign names. Most often, people choose to simplify spellings as much as possible. Journalists do inform the public’s awareness of correct spellings. Where their style guides chooses a different spelling, for whatever reason other than consistency, this then has a ripple effect on how people spell certain names. It is certainly clear that, if you are about to get famous, make sure you clarify how your name is spelled from the very beginning. There is virtually no way back once a particular misspelling becomes popular, as observed in the cases of Mr Abe Shinzō and Mr Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

#	Name	Misspelled (%)
1	Abe Shinzō	97.04
2	Volodymyr Zelenskyy	94.18
3	Pedro Sánchez	27.85
4	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	26.17
5	Mohammed bin Salman	15.10
6	Aung San Suu Kyi	9.91
7	Boutros Boutros-Ghali	8.77
8	Hillary Clinton	4.90
9	Barack Obama	3.21
10	Jean-Claude Juncker	2.26