Chloë Sevigny, Saoirse Ronan, Charlize Theron. There are countless celebrity names we know we’re messing up, but we’re trying and they’re difficult, okay?
However, the pronunciation of Ariana Grande‘s last name has never been a mystery to most of us. Identical to the popular Starbuck’s coffee size, we thought we’d nailed it. Well, according to Ariana and her grandfather, apparently not.
In a recent interview with Beats 1, Grande revealed that growing up, her and her family pronounced their last name Grand-ee.
Not Grahn-day, Grand, or Grand-eh. Not any of the names we’ve been calling the singer and actress for her entire career.
“Well my brother kind of changed it to Grahn-day because, like, Grandee was kind of like the Americanised version of it, you know?” Ariana said.
“My brother was like, ‘We should say Grahn-day! It’s fun to say – it’s, like, a funny name,’” she said.
“I grew up saying Grand-ee and I think of my grandpa and I wish I said Grand-ee more.”
Ariana said her grandpa changed the pronunciation of her last name to Grand-ee upon arriving to America from Italy to make it sounds more “chill”.