How to pronounce Cynthia Erivo's full name: Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Amarachukwu Owezuke Echimino Erivo

Acclaimed actress of Wicked, Cynthia Erivo's entire name is an astounding seven names! 🤯

Erivo's first name 📛Cynthia is of Greek origin meaning: "moon goddess or woman from Kynthos" and Nameberry proclaims it "an attractive name." A tidbit to consider: "Cynthia always qualifies as a nature name. Two-flowered cynthia is a yellow wildflower in the aster family."

Behind the Name says, "Cynthia was not used as a given name until the Renaissance, and it did not become common in the English-speaking world until the 19th century. It reached a peak of popularity in the United States in 1957 and has declined steadily since then." 📉 In 2024, Cynthia was #826 on the most Popular Baby Names for girls. 📍California and 📍South Carolina have the most women named  Cynthia.

The rest of Erivo's six names are Nigerian. She shares the meaning of her names in a recent interview [▶0:50]: 

Zach Sang: "Your real name is seven names altogether. It's beautiful."

Cynthia Erivo: "Thank you very much."

ZS: "I don't want to butcher... Please..."

CE: "I'll say it. So it's Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Amarachukwu Owezuke Echimino Erivo. But there's a confirmation name Perpetua in there as well."

ZS: "Can you explain the origin of that and the history it's tied to?"

CE: "They're all Igbo Nigerian names. I really only know the translation for like two of them. Because maybe my memory is the worst. My mother gave me Chinasaokwu, it's God is always watching, as in taking care. And Onyedinmanasu is hard to translate exactly but it's like, you look forward, it doesn't matter what people are saying behind you cause you can't see it if you look forward that's the thing that matters."

You know your full name is a mouthful and truly something to behold when you don't even know all the meanings of them! 😅 Cynthia Erivo's names are all wonderful 👌🏾 (my favorite is 📛Perpetua) and it's great she's so proud of them all. 

I like the name 📛Cynthia — even though it's a bit of a boring name (also the name of an old best friend of mine growing up and the name of an ex's mother once upon a time) honestly... but something about it makes it 🔊sound pretty to say (I like the 'Cyn' part of it best). 🤔

📛Cynthia can be considered a classic name for as long as it's been around (the 19th century) and it's still on the name charts (just under the top 1k names) so it has longevity. I disagree with Nameberry that its popularity has peaked. 👎🏾 In time, especially with Erivo's popularity peaking, I don't doubt that 📛Cynthia will be cemented on the name charts in the top 📈 500 popular baby girl names. ✨

📌STATS ON THE NAME 📛Cynthia:

https://www.mynamestats.com/First-Names/C/CY/CYNTHIA/index.html

☔📛IRN RATING OF 📛Cynthia: 👍 OR 💚💚💚💚💚💚/10 

Denzel Washington's name pronounced correctly

Did you know legendary actor Denzel Washington's first name is actually pronounced differently than most of us have known it to be?!? 🤯

Denzel says himself on a recent Jimmy Kimmel episode that the right 🗣 pronunciation of his name is (🔉@ 7:59): Den-zul 🚫 NOT Den-zelle ❗ 

I actually knew this years ago after seeing him pronounce it on The Graham Norton Show in 2013. "Actually it's Denzel "(pron. Den-zul 🔉@ 0:06) Washington clarifies. I was shocked 😮 of course and I still mispronounce his name as Den-zelle 🤦🏿‍♀️  

📛Denzel is of Cornish origin and means "from the high stronghold." Denzel Washington was named after his father. On Kimmel's show he explains, "My mother would say 'Denzil' and we both show up. So she said 'from now on you're Denzel.' That's how we got to pronounce Denzel." Kimmel told Washington that in 1987, there were zero NFL football players named Denzel and now there are four (Burke, Perryman, Mims and Ward), something the late-night host credits to the actor's first Oscar win. Washington agreed, adding that he is confident many Denzels were named after him because of his unique name. 

In 1993 when Washington's film work was starting to soar, the name Denzel was at a 📈 peak point with 864 baby boys given the suave name. 😎 It also ranked #311 for being popular. Unfortunately as of recent, the name Denzel was not on SSA's Most Popular Baby Names list in 2024 📉. In England however, Denzel was at 📈 #687 for baby boys to be named in 2024.  

I like the name Denzel. Denzel Washington was definitely the first Denzel I ever heard of. I'm so accustomed to hearing his name as Den-zelle so I'm partial to that pronunciation — but Den-zul isn't bad, just different and takes awhile to get used to hearing/saying. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Here's to the dashing 📛Denzel (with either Den-zelle or Den-zul pronunciation) having a revival on the 📛 name charts 📈 once again because it really is such a fine name. 👌🏾 

⭐FAMOUS & 📝NOTEWORTHY 📛DENZELS:

📛Denzel Curry 🎤 (rapper) 

📛Denzel Clarke ⚾ (MLB player)

📛Denzel Jackson 🏀 (NCAA player)  

📛Denzel Jackson  (cartoon character on animated series Brickleberry)

📌STATS ON THE NAME 📛Denzel:

https://www.mynamestats.com/First-Names/D/DE/DENZEL/index.html

☔📛IRN RATING OF 📛Denzel: 👍 OR 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙/10

I wasted half of my life telling people how to pronounce my name.

  

I saw this meme on Facebook and agree with it 100%! 😩

It's very rare if my name 📛Sidra has ever been pronounced correctly on the first try by someone. Even after I've told people how it is meant to be said, it still has been said wrong (like at one of my  graduations, I wrote my name out phonetically [Cee-dra or C-dra] and gave it to the person announcing grads and when my name was called, it was still pronounced wrong. 🤦🏾‍♀️) which especially irks me. 😒  

The meme has over 36k comments 😮 under the post, and if I could I would be in the comment section the whole day 🧐 checking out all the names. 😅   

📌Here's the post where people tell their name pronunciation 😱 horror stories:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122134486436334788&_rdr