How to teach Siri to pronounce a name correctly

Siri's voice pitch and natural language has improved significantly over the years. But, just like humans, she can sometimes mispronounce a name. You can teach her how to pronounce names correctly. Here's how.

How to teach Siri to pronounce someone's name

  1. Press and hold the Home button on your iPhone or iPad, or say "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri.
  2. Say the name of a person that you think Siri will mispronounce.
  3. After Siri says the name, say "You're pronouncing [name] wrong." You can use a first, middle, or last name.

  1. Siri will ask you how to pronounce the first name of the person. Speak the first name.
  2. Siri will ask you to select a pronunciation. Play each option and choose the correct one.
  3. Siri will ask you the middle name of the person. Speak the middle name (if applicable).
  4. Siri will ask you to select a pronunciation. Play each option and choose the correct one.
  5. Siri will ask you the last name of the person. Speak the last name.
  6. Siri will ask you to select a pronunciation. Play each option and choose the correct one.

Siri will remember how to pronounce that particular name from now on. This doesn't necessarily work every time. Some names are still too complicated for Siri to understand how to pronounce, but this works most of the time.

Ally Kazmucha contributed to an earlier version of this article.

Updated March 2018: This is still up to date for the latest version of iOS!

Lory Gil

Lory is a renaissance woman, writing news, reviews, and how-to guides for iMore. She also fancies herself a bit of a rock star in her town and spends too much time reading comic books.  If she's not typing away at her keyboard, you can probably find her at Disneyland or watching Star Wars (or both).