Waterford town is Ireland’s top most mispronounced place name nationwide

A Waterford town was the most searched in Ireland by people looking for guidance on how to pronounce it. 

Dungarvan was the top most mispronounced, with 57,870 monthly searches, says a new study from Preply, which analysed the spellings of more than 100 Irish places. 

In Limerick, Foynes and Caherconlish both ranked in the top ten.

Other surprising inclusions, which many may view as easy to pronounce include Castletownbere, Spiddal and Termonfeckin. 

Some that might have people scratching their heads that made the list are Youghal, Clogherhead, and Grangebellew.  

The study found that most searches emerged from the spelling being quite different to how the place name actually sounds. 

Sylvia Johnson, language expert at Preply, said: “The complexity in pronouncing Irish place names often arises from the fact that they originated in the Irish language, often referred to as Irish Gaelic. 

“Since Irish Gaelic has its own unique phonetic rules, which differs significantly from English, it can be quite tricky for non-native speakers to pronounce them correctly. 

“For example, silent letters. Just like in English, Irish has silent letters and letter combinations. For instance, the combination "bh" might be silent or sound like a "v" or "w" depending on context.”

She added: “Many Irish place names are descriptive, so knowing some common elements can be beneficial. Few examples are "bally" or "baile" (place), "dun" (fort), "cill" (church), etc. If unsure of the pronunciation, use online audio tools to listen to the phonetics or ask a native speaker to help you out mastering the pronunciation.”

Looking away from the towns and villages, Dublin tourist attraction Kilmainham Gaol museum was searched on average 460 times over a 12-month spell.