It turns out that a lot of famous people have names that are a bit more difficult to pronounce correctly than we thought. Coming off the news that it turns out most of us have been pronouncing Rihanna’s name wrong this whole time, it’s now come to our attention that we’ve all been getting Margot Robbie’s name wrong too. The actress says she loves hearing her name spoken in her native Australia because in America we do it differently.
Speaking on Australia's Today program (via The Daily Mail) Margot Robbie says she loves her name when it is spoken at home because the Aussie way to say the name basically skips over the ‘r’ in Margot. Robbie explains…
I just love hearing my name with an Aussie accent too because in America, everyone hits the 'r' like Mar-go. Here's (it's) Ma-go. It's just so special to be home.
Robbie talked about hearing fans scream her name when she attended the Australian premiere of her new movie Babylon. For her, it’s about the fact that hearing her name said that particular way means she’s home. She says in the interview that Australia is important to her and that she loves to talk about her home and show it off to people who have never been.
Technically speaking neither pronunciation may qualify as wrong, it’s just about the different nuances and the different ways that English has evolved as a language between the two different cultures. But of course, Margot Robbie grew up hearing her name spoken with an Australian accent, so to her, that’s what qualifies as the “right” way to do it, so she prefers that to the American pronunciation. For what it’s worth, Robbie’s Babylon co-star Diego Calva mentions in the same interview that Mexican fans pronounce her name perfectly phonetically, so they hit both the ‘r’ and the ‘t’ in Margot.
It’s one thing if you’re somebody that has an unusually spelled or pronounced name. We’ve heard of people, particularly celebrities, that simply resign themselves to having their first or last name pronounced wrong. The wrong way to say the name becomes the standard. Ask Brett Favre.
I’m not sure that the Australian pronunciation of Margot even works with an American accent. There’s something about the Australian accent that certainly makes that pronunciation seem natural. If people in the U.S. did start calling her “Ma-go” I’m not sure it would work. Our accent just isn’t cool enough.
It doesn’t sound like Margot Robbie necessarily has a problem with the American pronunciation of her name. It’s more than she recognizes the difference, and so hearing the Australian way of saying it connects her to her home, and so it feels that much more special.
