I was in high school when the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie came out. At the time, I was already a big fan of Kirsten Dunst. Up until that point, however, my brain had always read her name as “Kris-ten” not “Keer-sten.” I distinctly remember the moment I heard a TV reporter call her by her name out loud. It prompted a moment of epiphany. I felt badly for never reading it properly, but I’ve said it the “right” way ever since.
Kirsten is now decades into being famous, and people are still mispronouncing her name. At this point, she has made peace with this fact and decided that people calling her the wrong name does not bother her at all. During a recent interview, she was asked about how she handles correcting someone when they mispronounce her name. Keer-sten laughed and reiterated the correct way to say her name, then stressed how much she no longer cares if you say it the right way or not.
Kirsten Dunst is well aware of the power of a name. But even still, the Bring It On star isn’t bothered when people mispronounce hers—something they’ve apparently been doing for years.
“I mean, everyone messes up my name, so I give up,” Kirsten shared with Town & Country in an Aug. 20 TikTok. “I don’t care.”
The 43-year-old confessed that she’ll answer to anything from criss-ten to ker-stin to keer-sten—with the latter being how she actually pronounces it.
“I don’t blame people,” she explained. “Like in England, they don’t really say my name right.”
But it’s not just those in the United Kingdom who have issues with the pronunciation.
“The last set, everyone was saying my name wrong,” the Power of the Dog star recalled. “There was like Swedish people and people from Hungary. You just give up.”
But she clarified the one and only way to correctly say her name is “Keer-sten.”
“But again, who cares?” she quipped. “It’s fine.”
Poor Kirsten! I feel badly that she’s accepted the fact that there will always be people who pronounce her first name wrong. I know this is not an uncommon situation, but I just figured that after 30+ years, the correct way to say it would be common knowledge. (Accents aside, of course.) She’s so funny and gracious about it, though. Her comments got me thinking about other commonly mispronounced celebrity names. Off the top of my head, we’ve got Alicia Silverstone, who pronounces her name as “Ali-See-yuh” and Ralph Fiennes, who pronounces his first name as “Rafe.” This next example is not the same thing, but I was stoked when I finally learned the correct, Irish pronunciation of Saorise Ronan’s name, which is “Ser-sha.” I don’t know how I’d feel if people kept mispronouncing my first name, but I imagine I’d also get to a point where as long as the checks cashed, I’d also just sigh and not care anymore.
-
- Celebrities arriving at the Bal D Ete ahead of Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris, France Featuring: Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons Where: Paris, France When: 06 Jul 2025 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Photos credit: Laurent Zabulon/Abaca Press/INSTARimages, Getty
I get Diane consistently which is very irritating. But I now get DeeAnnah from some US colleagues which is pretty wild.
There was a fairly famous woman with my name so I thought it was well known..
It’s Liza with a z not Lisa with an s ….. Every Sandra who’se a Sondra, every Mary who’se really Marie, every Joan who’se a Joanne…… Now I have an earworm.
Nicola with an a, nor Nicole with an e or the cough drop ricola 🤣 I gave up correcting people in the states on my name 13 years ago. I don’t care, just a name.
I was today years old when I learned that I had been mispronouncing Alicia Silverstone’s name! To be fair I did know how to pronounce Kirsten’s name, and Ralph’s (though the second one took me a minute). I grew up with people named “Kristen” (sometimes with a C) and one or two “Kirstens” or “Kirsties” so that helped. The latter spellings only came into vogue in the US around the time she was born, I think.
Isn’t one of the original American Girl dolls named something similar?
Kirsten Larson, from Sweden. Settled in Minnesota. Best friend Marta died from cholera.
lol.
Exactly!!!!!! I never had the dolls but I did read the books. Omg, Kirsten’s christmas wreath candle crown!!!!!!
Yes, that doll & books were a personal favorite! LOL
I am Scandinavian so I am accustomed to that pronunciation, though I’ve more commonly seen it spelled Kjersten.
My great great grandmother’s name was Kjersten Hjelmstad.
It’s actually funny to me that this is a thing, because I’ve literally never heard anyone say it wrong, and I have always said it right. I am 48, and so, when she came on the scene (def saw interview with the vamp, little women, and jumanji like right when they came out in the 90s, so that’s where I first saw her), I was already aware of the american girl doll called kirsten (although I coveted samantha, but my mom said I was too old for dolls when I found out about them in the 5th grade and I didn’t want one enough to spend my own money lol) AND kirstie alley, who was super funny on cheers and in the look who’s talking movies (which, again, were from my childhood). SO it’s probably just my age
I am always paranoid about saying someone’s name wrong. Some people take that very seriously. I usually ask them first how they pronounce it. If it’s not the average name. Better to ask first, then look stupid, I say.
Re: the pronunciation in the UK, we always pronounce ‘Kir’ as ‘Ker’ not ‘Keer’. We say ‘Ker-stee’ for Kirsty, and ‘Ker-sten’ for Kirsten. I’ve never heard anyone ever say it the American way for their own names here. We do make the same sound but that’s when we say ‘Keer’ for Kier (Starmer) or ‘Keer-an’ for ‘Kieran’. The only place I ever hear ‘Keer-‘ like Kirsten Dunst uses was in the OC! But agree, we all should make every effort to pronounce people’s names like they do for themselves.
It’s a Scandinavian pronunciation rather than English pronunciation.
The spelling of Kjersten or Kiersten has been Anglicized to Kirsten.
My first name is frequently mispronounced. At this point, unless they ask me, I just let it go, I know they’re talking to me and not someone else, lol.
My daughter’s name has an “s” but some people say it as “z,” which drives her nuts. I think that’s just being lazy.
Ralph Fiennes is always hard for me.
I knew a Kirsten in elementary school and knew of the american girl story so I knew that one at least!
I have a two-name first name (Anne Marie) and that causes all kinds of issues. I get just Anne (which I kind of hate) Annie (which I REALLY hate, the ‘e’ is silent, people!), Mary Anne, Annie Marie (wth? This is the worst), Anna Marie…and so on. I joke that if there is an Ann(e) in there I’ll probably answer to it. Combine it with the fact that my last name is also easy to mispronounce, nobody ever gets my name right unless we’re friends, lol.
Bette Midler pronounces her name Bet because her mother named all of her daughters after actresses and thought that was how Bette Davis pronounced it. Bette Midler’s sisters were named after Judy Garland and Susan Hayward.