We’ve Been Pronouncing Ariana Grande’s Name Wrong This Whole Time

After all these years of thinking we know how to pronounce Ariana Grande’s name, it suddenly turns out we have all been doing it wrong.

Well, kind of.

Mostly, when Ariana Grande is introduced or talked about, people pronounce her surname as “Gran-DAY,” or, to be even fancier, “Gron-DAY.” Over the years, Ariana has also been known to pronounce her surname in this manner and has rarely corrected people when they say it that way. So, it totally seems like the correct way to pronounce it. However, according to Pop Buzz, this is not the proper way to say Grande.

According to the Australian radio presenter Jackie O, we should all be pronouncing Ariana’s surname as “Gran-DEE.”

But wait, there is a reason for this and not merely the way Australian’s pronounce the word, as some might suspect.

During a segment on the morning radio program the Kyle & Jackie O Breakfast Show, Jackie O made the announcement after hearing Ariana pronounce her surname as “Gran-DEE” and not “Gran-DAY.” In an interview, she did in relation to whether or not she would hyphenate her surname when married, Ariana allowed the interviewer to pronounce her name as “Gran-DAY” but then subtly slipped in her own pronunciation when replying. She also pointed out that one day, rather than having her own surname, or a hyphenated name, she would like to eventually be known as simply “Ariana.”

You can check out Ariana pronouncing her surname correctly below.

i was today years old when i found out how to actually pronounce Ariana Grande’s name ? pic.twitter.com/24caB2aoiP

— Rosie (@0hkatie) September 13, 2018

In addition, the singer delved further into the correct way to say her name when interviewed by ET Canada. The interviewer asked her exactly how to pronounce her surname and the reason why. Ariana explained that her grandfather always pronounced their surname as “Gran-DEE” and that was the correct way to say it. However, this is likely the Americanized version, something that was done at the time to make names more culturally acceptable when people migrated.

She reveals in the interview that her brother, Frankie, changed the pronunciation to “Gran-DAY” because he thought it was a “fun” way to say their surname. However, Frankie also revealed that he didn’t like the way his name rolled out with the surname pronounced “Gran-DEE,” so he changed the pronunciation of it when he became an equity actor.

You can hear the way his name sounded with the original pronunciation below.

So, there you have it, you now know the correct way to pronounce Ariana Grande’s surname!