Tennessee is famous for towns with names that challenge even the most confident GPS—and most newcomers! Here are 11 Tennessee place names that regularly trip up travelers and voice assistants, with pronunciation help:
Ooltewah (“OO-da-wah”)
Milan (“MY-lin” – not like the Italian city)
Santa Fe (“Santa Fee” – not like the New Mexico city)
Lebanon (“LEB-nun” – run together quickly)
Finger (“Fanger” – with a hard ‘A’, not like on your hand)
Maury County/City (“MURR-ee” – sounds like “Murray”)
Lafayette (“luh-FAY-ett” – not “La-FY-ette”)
Blount (“Blunt” – silent ‘o’)
Medina (“Muh-DINE-uh”)
Sevierville (“Seh-VEER-vull” – the “ville” is “vull”)
Poga (“PO-gee”)
These names often have pronunciations influenced by local dialect or historic quirks, so out-of-towners confuse them regularly—and locals can always spot a newcomer by the way these are said.
SOURCES
(https://www.reddit.com/r/Tennessee/comments/1e3z7pc/mispronounced_citycounty_names/)(https://tnhomeandfarm.com/tn-living/tn-towns-most-mispronounced/)
(https://www.rd.com/list/difficult-to-pronounce-towns/)
(https://www.jagranjosh.com/us/trending/list-of-hardest-town-names-to-pronounce-in-each-us-state-1860000816)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM3-csAjjl0)
