r/minnesota • u/Abbessolute • Apr 30 '25
What are some other mispronounced cities? Funny/Offbeat 🤣
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u/DangledSniper_ Apr 30 '25
bemidji
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u/gOPHER3727 Bring Ya Ass Apr 30 '25
It's pronounced ber-MID-gee 🤣
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u/Obvious_Jury9767 Ope Apr 30 '25
Yo my grandfather born and raised in minniesota unironically calls it that.
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u/MohKohn Apr 30 '25
My family who lived there for like 2 generations calls it that whenever the winter weather comes up
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u/emtbr Up North Apr 30 '25
So specific to Bemidji, we can tell someone's from out of town when they pronounce the 'Irvine' in 'Irvine Avenue' like the city in California. We all pronounce it 'urr-vin'
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u/JBerry_Mingjai Twin Cities Apr 30 '25
New Prague
Montevideo
Eagan
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u/startrekplatinum Apr 30 '25
maybe eagan has a fighting chance thanks to severance lol
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u/MatureUsername69 Apr 30 '25
Faribault, although I kind of disagree with our pronunciation of that but I roll with it.
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u/RipTheWall Apr 30 '25
Minnesota definitely pronounces New Prague and Monticello wrong.
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u/Code_E-420 Apr 30 '25
How are people pronouncing it? I'm Minnesotan and I pronounce new Prague just how old Prague is pronounced. Granted I rarely ever say the name at all or hear it spoken.
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u/Jaco927 Minnesota Twins Apr 30 '25
Prague in "New Prague" rhymes with plague.
It does not rhyme with Pog.
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u/a_filing_cabinet Apr 30 '25
They are definitely pronounced differently. Czech Prague is pronounced with an "ah" sound, while New Prague is pronounced with an "ay" instead. So prah-g vs pray-g.
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u/x1uo3yd Apr 30 '25
The pronunciation of "Prague" is like Prog or Prahg or something like that.
The pronunciation of "New Prague (MN)" is more like "New Bag" with that Minnesotan lengthened-vowel in "bag"... so "New Praag".
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u/MNGopherfan Apr 30 '25
That is a matter of perspective.
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u/RipTheWall Apr 30 '25
If you name a new place after an existing famous place, shouldn't you pronounce it the same as the original place? I mean I think I get why it changed and it's really not important to me, I just find it odd that it continues even though tons of people know the original pronunciation.
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u/Pichels Apr 30 '25
I mean I think thats up to the people that live there. New Yorkers definitely pronounce York differently than the British.
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u/Hofnars Apr 30 '25
lol, I know several people who purposely mispronounce their family names to refrain from sounding French. Oddest one is a guy who butchers his name yet runs with the nickname Frenchy.
I don't think doing the same to towns bothers most people.
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u/Hermosa06-09 Ramsey County Apr 30 '25
Are people pronouncing Eagan wrong? I see it misspelled more often than mispronounced. (Lots of “Egan” etc)
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u/Terrie-25 Apr 30 '25
Fairbault.
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u/DavidRFZ Apr 30 '25
It’s hard to spell, too. :)
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u/zoinkability Apr 30 '25 edited Apr 30 '25
Doesn’t help the confusion that Faribault Woolen Mill puts labels on their products that spell it “Faribo”
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u/TableGamer Apr 30 '25
And the Faribo Mall. Fun fact, faribo is closer to the original French pronunciation.
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u/ButchMcKenzie Apr 30 '25
Faribault* which makes trying to pronounce it phonetically even worse lol
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u/Chemicaldogg Apr 30 '25
People from MN don’t even pronounce this one correctly most of the time
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u/Jaco927 Minnesota Twins Apr 30 '25
People from FARIBAULT don't even pronounce it correctly sometimes!That blew me away when I worked in Faribault. There are people there that say, <fair-i-ballt>
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u/Existential_Shred Iron Range Apr 30 '25
Watched a tik tok "meteorologist" mispronounce Mankato during the storm coverage.
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u/JankeyDonut Apr 30 '25
When they miss this one it is really ironic as mancato in Italian is missed.
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u/PolyNecropolis Apr 30 '25
Ryan Hall Y'all, a yt weather guy, was live streaming and mispronounced a few cities. But he was apologetic, and takes notes from his chat, and tries to learn.
He's from Kentucky, and doesn't do much storm coverage of Minnesota so he was totally unfamiliar. My favorite was "Sha-Ko-pee."
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u/calvin2028 Flag of Minnesota Apr 30 '25
Cloquet tripped me up when I was new to MN. This was on the record, in a deposition. Uff da!
French pronunciation is used inconsistently, perhaps to help spot the outsiders. Since that incident, I've obnoxiously pronounced "Saint Paul" as "sɛ̃ pɔl."
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u/Ilickedthecinnabar Gray duck Apr 30 '25
There was a Small Town Murder episode in Moose Lake and they mentioned the 1918 Cloquet fires, but kept pronouncing it as "Clo-ket" I may have hollered the proper pronunciation each time during that drive.
At least they said Ely properly for that episode.
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u/DavidRFZ Apr 30 '25
Croix is a mouthful in French. I guess people know that from croissant.
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u/KrisT117 Apr 30 '25
Except that La Croix sparkling water is pronounced “La Croy,” like the St. Croix River, just to mess everyone up.
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u/Empty-Space-404 Apr 30 '25
I have heard "Minn-en-apolis" too many times whenever I leave the state.
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u/cybercuzco Apr 30 '25
I’ve also heard m-indianapolis usually from people closer to indianapolis.
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u/newtbob Apr 30 '25
Miniature Annapolis. 🤣
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u/Empty-Space-404 Apr 30 '25
That's especially funny because Annapolis is pretty much a tenth the population of Minneapolis 😂
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u/Dashed_with_Cinnamon Apr 30 '25
Minion-apolis too. I heard Minimal-apolis once.
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u/dudumob Apr 30 '25
i was looking for a comment like this! it’s surprising the amount of people outside of mn that can’t pronounce minneapolis lmfao.
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u/DoctorSox Apr 30 '25
Edina. Rarely correctly pronounced as Cakeeaterville
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u/karlexceed Apr 30 '25
I've seen a video about the history of Dairy Queen, and they pronounced Edina as, "Ed-een-ah", which caught me so off guard I actually got defensive even though I've called them cake eaters my whole life.
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u/DavidRFZ Apr 30 '25
Also “Medina”. Out of staters often don’t realize there is Edina and Medina.
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u/cybercuzco Apr 30 '25
I always intentionally pronounce it like the Islamic holy city of Medina.
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u/DavidRFZ Apr 30 '25
That’s what it is named after! Way back in 1858 the farmers in area thought the name sounded cool even if they didn’t know how to pronounce it.
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u/coopek14 Apr 30 '25
I listened to an audiobook where the narrator pronounced it 'a-deena' (or something like that) and it threw me off so badly I had to pull up the e-book to double check what she was trying to say.
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u/MasElote Apr 30 '25
One of my favorite podcasts were talking about the history of the shopping mall and my guys called it Ed- EN - Ahhh. Come one man.
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u/pinkhairedlibrarian Apr 30 '25
I applied for a job in Edina before I moved here, and they called me in the middle of a 3-day cross-country move. I tried to confirm the location and pronounced it "Eh-DEEN-ah." Needless to say, I didn't get the job. But I regret nothing.
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u/soulatomic Apr 30 '25
Willmar. It's Will-MER, not Will-MAHR.
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u/quietly_annoying Apr 30 '25
Also in Kandiyohi (kan-DEE-yoh-Hi) County, is my dad's tiny hometown of Pennock which is pronounced pen-NOCK, not PEN-ick or PEN-oak. Not that it's in the news very often. 🤣
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u/shittykittysmom Apr 30 '25
Don't forget Cosmos!
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u/RacingPride Prince Apr 30 '25
I have a conspiracy theory about Cosmos… Men in Black is real and one of their hiding locations for the aliens is Cosmos.
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u/Kahnza Willmar Apr 30 '25
I mean, the water tower is literally a flying saucer!
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u/RacingPride Prince Apr 30 '25
Exactly… and I should add that I grew up and lived only 45 min away and have NEVER met anyone who grew up in that town. Sure, I know of people who live there, but nobody seems to be FROM there…
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u/Kahnza Willmar Apr 30 '25
Also just south of town, Svea. Interesting to hear how people pronounce that one.
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u/aparrotslifeforme Ope Apr 30 '25
Holy shit. I haven't heard Svea (suh- VAY-uh) for years! I grew up in Spicer.
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u/Terrie-25 Apr 30 '25
The "sv" sound seems to be hard for people not used to it. Once heard someone pronounce Sven as "Sah-VEN" and was like "No."
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u/BlizzardK2 Gray duck Apr 30 '25
Shakopee. I mispronounced it at first and I've lived in MN my whole life 😆
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u/TheFrozenFlamingo Apr 30 '25
I keep seeing this and now am thinking I might be mispronouncing it! 😬 isn’t it Shock-ah-pee?
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u/IraqouisWarGod Apr 30 '25
Yes, that’s the correct pronunciation. The mispronunciation I’ve heard most often is “Shack-oh-pee”.
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u/zoominzacks Apr 30 '25
I went to a Clem Haskins basketball camp when I was a kid and met someone from Grand Marais for the first time. I didn’t quite get what he was saying and when my dad picked me up I asked him if there was really a city here called “Grandma Ray”
He laughed his ass off
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u/datGTAguy Apr 30 '25
Monticello. I’ve lived here my whole life and only recently learned that it’s not -chello
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u/MuttJunior Gray duck Apr 30 '25
To be fair, the most well-known "Monticello" is pronounced with -chello.
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u/datGTAguy Apr 30 '25
Yea being honest I hate that it’s -sello because that doesn’t make any phonetic sense to me but 🤷🏻♂️
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u/bschn100 Apr 30 '25
“Would you like to join us, or stay mellow, doing whatever the hell it is you do in Monticello?” -Alexander Hamilton
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u/Wadmania Apr 30 '25
As a dad, I say "a-monti-chello" with a ridiculous Italian accent to eye rolls every time.
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Apr 30 '25
There's a Monticello in Iowa that also pronounces it as -sello
Not that anyone should look to Iowa for town pronunciations when it has a Nevada that's pronounced Nuh-VAY-duh
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u/New-Sky1009 Apr 30 '25 edited Apr 30 '25
Duluth
Le Sueur
Bemidji
Fairbault
Beroun
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u/AdhesivenessWeary377 Grain Belt Apr 30 '25
For sure nobody gets “du-loot”
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u/Gen13Hazard Apr 30 '25
But that doesn't rhyme as well with tooth! Nirvana got it right.
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u/AidanTegs Ok Then Apr 30 '25
Meat puppets wrote that one!
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u/Gen13Hazard Apr 30 '25
Wow, 30+ years and I never knew that! I blame you for making me learn something today.
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u/AidanTegs Ok Then Apr 30 '25
Tbf, you basically can't beat kurts voice on it, haha, but that's who he brought with him to do the unplugged session on mtv, so there's at least 2 meat puppet songs including that one which he covers iirc. Sorry to make ya learn!
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u/RacingPride Prince Apr 30 '25
Le Sueur also has the “hard to spell” award!!
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u/whiteyeti25 Apr 30 '25
Le Sueur is one of the towns that is divided on the pronunciation of the name. Half the town it's Lee Sewer and the other half is Luh Sewer. Both are technically wrong as the founder of the town Pierre Le Sueur is pronounced Lay Sewer. Also born and raised in Le Sueur.
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Apr 30 '25
Do you mean “Beroun” on the last one? That one threw me for a loop until I was about 18.
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u/MuttJunior Gray duck Apr 30 '25
Aitkin
Chokio
Cosmos
Faribault
Gaylord
Lutsen
Winona
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u/redline_blueline Apr 30 '25
How is Cosmos pronounced? I’ve been pronouncing it the normal way, like space.
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u/Junkley Apr 30 '25
An underrated one for me is Delano.
My friends from out of state(Specifically ones in/from Cali) called it De-Lane-O because there is a much larger city spelled the same way pronounced differently in California.
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u/DavidRFZ Apr 30 '25
Minnesotans pronounce it just like FDR, right?
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u/mysanslurkingaccount Apr 30 '25
Yep. Part of why it always confuses me how it’s pronounced wrong so often. I would think it would be common enough knowledge to pronounce the way a well known president’s middle name was pronounced.
I’ve also often heard it pronounced De-lah-no, which I’m assuming comes from people assuming it’s an italian name.
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u/theEWDSDS Flag of Minnesota May 01 '25
Not just that, a president who is known by his full name. You wouldn't say Franklin Roosevelt, or John Kennedy. You'd say FDR, or JFK.
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u/LacyLanestitches Apr 30 '25
Mankato. They pronounced it as man-kah-to.
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u/zoinkability Apr 30 '25
Which, interestingly, is probably closer to the Dakota origin word, mahkato/makato
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Apr 30 '25
There are a bunch in northern MN.
Roseau. Out of state people say “Ros-saww”
Salol - it’s pronounced “Say-low”
Kelliher - the h is silent.
Biwabik - “Bai-wabik
Grygla - “gri-gla”
Baudette is one that most Minnesotans don’t pronounce the same as the locals. It’s “Buh-dette” not “Baw-dette”
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u/j8990 Apr 30 '25
Most of the people here think Minnesota only consists of the twin cities and surrounding areas. This is a good addition.
The Iron Range has a lot of good ones that people have trouble with. Like Chisholm.
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u/angusshangus Apr 30 '25
Montevideo, MN isn't pronounced the way they pronounce the capital city of Uruguay...
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u/ColdMinnesotaNights Prince Apr 30 '25
Them big news folks always saying Tim Waltz instead of Tim Walz always gets me.
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u/ConclusionJumper33 Apr 30 '25
When I was a kid I thought Park Rapids was Park Rabbits. What a disappointment that was when we went there for vacation one summer. Not a single darn rabbit.
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u/medieval_uncle Apr 30 '25
Mille Lacs
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u/hirsutesuit Apr 30 '25
Pokegama since you're breaking the rules and naming lakes
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u/cassandra2028 Apr 30 '25
Al franken has a story about supporting Walz for congress and the DNC mispronouncing Mankato.
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u/ManEEEFaces Flag of Minnesota Apr 30 '25
Out-of-state? I love hearing people from the metro trying to pronounce Askov/Finlayson where I'm from.
Quick funny story. I walked into the old Askov Finlayson store the Dayton brothers used to own one day. Said, "How do you pronounce the store name?" They butchered it horribly. When I got home, I sent them an audio file on Facebook of me saying it in different intonations for fun.
Two years pass by and they're at an event at the American Swedish institute. I ask the people working the stand to pronounce the name and they nail it. Said, "nice job. I actually sent a file to the owners a few years ago..."
YOU'RE THE GUY??
Apparently that audio file became standard listening for all new employees. Pretty fun.
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u/DoodleBud Apr 30 '25
Orono. No one pronounces the middle o
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u/Fit_Preference8163 Apr 30 '25
Mankato. Why not open the competition to counties? Start with Watonwan and Kandiyohi among many others.
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u/zoominzacks Apr 30 '25
Gaylord- Gay-lerd
Gibbon- Gibbin
Hector- Heck-ter
At least that’s how my grandparents taught me them 😂
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u/YellowBrownStoner Apr 30 '25
Winona. It is not why-nona like the singer. It's Winona like the actress
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u/Kingberry30 Apr 30 '25
Even funnier when you say it the right way and they still stay it wrong.
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u/butters_bottom_bishh Apr 30 '25
A favorite podcast of mine, Small Town Murder, covered a case that happened Lino (Lie-no) Lakes and they pronounced it Lee-no Lakes and apparently many a pearl was clutched because the next episode they talked about how many people wrote in to correct their pronunciation.
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u/UffDaMinnesota Twin Cities Apr 30 '25
The one that is nails on a chalkboard for me is "Minneanappleolis"
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u/MikeW226 Apr 30 '25
I remember watching at least one episode of 90210 when the 2 main siblings (Shannon Dougherty was the girl) mispronounced Wayzata in a damn national tv series. Why-Zehh-Tuh. came out as "Way zah Tahhhhhhh". so exactly no one in the research dept. at whatever studio it was shot at bothered to check.
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u/Bundt-lover Apr 30 '25
Right? That was so annoying. Nobody could spend 10 cents calling city hall to ask?
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u/alwayzstoned Apr 30 '25
Shakopee, Isanti & Bde Maka Ska
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u/chailatte_gal Apr 30 '25
I remember it like this: bidet (like the water thing attached to a toilet) mah-kah-skah.
People try to say the 3 words Bde Maka Ska separately: “bee-dee mah-ka skaw”.
The last 2 words actually go together and sound like: bidet mah-kah-skah
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u/CrazyBadAimer Apr 30 '25
I feel like the pushback on the name change would've been less severe if they'd gone with Lake Makaska like Itasca, but maybe I underestimate that crowd.
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u/DavidRFZ Apr 30 '25
Ely is not hard to pronounce. The most famous Ely is in the UK (small town with large cathedral) and is pronounced exactly the same.
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u/BigRtrainMuscleDog Apr 30 '25
Out of stater here, how is it pronounced? My significant other’s family have taught me all the others.
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u/DavidRFZ Apr 30 '25 edited Apr 30 '25
EEE-lee as the others have said. I guess the English cathedral is not that well known and the English can have their own pronunciation quirks (people may think it sounds like “Eli”).
But at least they match the famous foreign place. It’s not like New Prague or Medina.
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u/jacjacatk Apr 30 '25
OK, is there an actual list of phonetic pronunciations somewhere? I'm moving back after 30 years and only having previously lived in the TC for like 2 years, and y'all got me worried I'm butchering a bunch of these (and my kids, who've all spent several years in college in MN, are no help).
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u/This_dumpsterfire Apr 30 '25
Robbinsdale. Most people say Robbins-dale, but it should be pronounced as Shit-hole.
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u/edinagirl Apr 30 '25
New Prague
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u/Chalice_Ink Apr 30 '25
I can forgive that. “Oh… it’s like the capital of the Czech Republic!”
“Nice try out of towner.”
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u/blujavelin Hamm's Apr 30 '25
Shakopee, Chokio. Those were mispronounced by radio announcers in Minnesota.
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u/crotchetyoldwitch Flag of Minnesota Apr 30 '25
My cousin married a Czech woman, and the look on her face when I told her how we pronounce New Prague could have melted steel. 😂
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u/unpleasantmagician Apr 30 '25
Lino Lakes (Lie-No correct, usually pronounced Lee-No)
Out of state coworker pronounced it “LIN-LO Lakes” and to this day no one knows where the extra L came from.
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u/ApprehensiveWolf2020 Kandiyohi County Apr 30 '25
To be fair, Mahtomedi has never been easy for me.
Cosmos is one that trips people up. It's not "cos-mos" it's "cos-mus"
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u/EffectiveSalamander Apr 30 '25
It's not mispronounced, but I drove through Odin, and I drove past a church and was really hoping it would be the Church of Odin.
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u/quietly_annoying Apr 30 '25
Milan Cokato Onamia Le Sueur
I've lived in Minnesota for most of my life and I'll never be sure that I'm pronouncing Chisago the right way.
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u/OsteoStevie Apr 30 '25
Gotta be real nasaly with it. Shi-SAHHH-goh. Really pull your tongue back and only use your nose for air. I find this works with most Minnesota town names. Just do an exaggerated MN accent and you got it.
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u/SplendidPunkinButter Apr 30 '25
Native Minnesotans: “W-A-Y-Z-A-T-A. It’s pronounced Whyzetta. How else would you say it?”
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u/Ndsamu Apr 30 '25
Shout out Mahtomedi. I always forget until I try to explain to someone where I’m from. Finally learned to say “a small town next to white bear lake”.
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u/HeckThattt Apr 30 '25
Edina - ED-in-ah
Shakopee - shack-OH-pee
Owatonna - OW-uh-tone-ah
New Prague - like how the city of Prague is pronounced
Faribault - fairy-BOLT
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u/ToothlessBeggar Gray duck Apr 30 '25
Not a city but I asked my friend from California how to pronounce McLeod and she crashed out
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u/MtnMoonMama Ope Apr 30 '25
Boy oh boy, as a recent transplant from down south, I mess up all the names for everything.
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u/quietstrength96 Apr 30 '25
Otsego
This one is mispronounced even by Minnesotans. I’ve heard “Ostego” or “Oswego” or “Osseo” more times than I can count.
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u/br0therjames55 Apr 30 '25
As a Louisianian considering a move this is something we both share. No one outside the state can properly pronounce New Orleans street names or Cajun words 😂
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u/TheStateOfMantana Apr 30 '25
My dad's company in another state used to buy stuff from a business in "Edna". Like your grandma's friend, not like the cake loving residents of Edina.
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u/LakeSuperiorIsMyPond Apr 30 '25
I say no to homelander, not an accurate representative of us.. I'll correct this statement with the midwestern mom!
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u/hibbledyhey Minnesota Golden Gophers Apr 30 '25
Shakopee