Pronouncing The Candidates’ Names: A Primary Primer

Which pronunciation is correct? According to the candidate, both.

BOSTON — It’s hard enough keeping track of all the candidates for Senate — now try pronouncing their names.

At Downtown Crossing last week, we asked a half-dozen voters to take their best shot at Pagliuca, Capuano, and Khazei. Not one person pronounced them all correctly:

When Paul Tsongas, the late Massachusetts senator, ran for president in 1992, America — not to mention the press — had trouble pronouncing his name. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote of him: “Never mind character flaws. Is America ready for a President with a peculiar consonant cluster?”

The Greek pronunciation is Chungus, his aides said — rhymes with fungus — but the anglicized and acceptable pronunciation is SAHN-gus. The congressman even took out famous campaign ads to capitalize on the confusion.

So when the guy who owns the Boston Celtics first announced he was running for Senate, you should have seen the e-mails flying around the WBUR newsroom: Is it Stephen PAG-lee-oo-kuh, PAL-ee-yoo-kuh, pal-YOO-kuh? For the final word, I asked the man himself:

“It’s pronounced pal-YOO-kuh. The G is silent in Italy, like lasagna,” he told me.

We radio people care a lot about these things. Normally, the rule of thumb is to pronounce a person’s name the way he says it.

Q: Which one of these men is running for Senate? A: The one on the right. But the one on the left is much more famous, and their names rhyme.

That’s why WBUR’s Bob Oakes tried to set the record straight with Rep. Michael Capuano, the Somerville Democrat. But his answer didn’t put the matter to rest.

“Depends who you’re talking to,” Capuano said. “People who speak Italian would say my name, mee-GAY-luh cah-poo-AH-no. But most people anglicize most things, so my name would be Michael cap-yoo-AH-noh.”

As for the Democrat who co-founded City Year, Alan Khazei? One of his television advertisements nips this problem in the bud.

“Hazy?” the dopey voiceover asks.

“Daisy?”

“Jay-Z?”

“Not hazy, daisy, Jay-Z, he’s Alan Khazei!” a disembodied woman replies. The ad is annoying, but anyone who saw it probably never forgot how to say the man’s name.

Thankfully, the remaining Democrat has it pretty easy: Martha Coakley. And on the Republican side, Scott Brown is a no-brainer.

That leaves one more candidate, a Republican, whose name causes confusion for other reasons: Jack E. Robinson. Say that one aloud. At least you’ll be able to pronounce it.