It's pronounced wä-KĒN FĒN-ix people. His first name is not pronounced like "Walk-ing." The actor can't understand why it's so hard to the public and media to pronounce his name. He may want to switch it back to the much easier to pronounce Leaf.
He says, "I was born in Puerto Rico and Joaquin is a Spanish name. And when I came to the US, nobody could pronounce it. They would say, 'What's your name?' And I would say, 'Joaquin' and they would go, 'Walk-ing? Walk - what?' And you know how kids always get bothered with that kind of thing. Like, 'No! My name is...' So it bothered me and so I changed it. (The worse is) 'Joe Wa-Keem' - I have been called that a lot in Europe. I think there's maybe a German or French name like that."
Joaquin Phoenix Is Annoyed With Name Mispronunciation [Starpulse]
ravenswing
to be honest, I've never heard anyone mis pronounce it. I just want to be able to say to him "oh baby, yes, more more, oooooh yeahhhhh!!"
;)
STARGAZER says:
Do stars ever get embarrassed having these inane monologues about themselves in public ?
This a grown man whinging about how people don t pronounce his name properly. Get over it, its been a long time since you were 10 years old. Why not call yourself Joe and shut the f up?
European says:
The european name he's talking about is probably Joakim/Joachim which is a VERY common name in a lot of countries (at least the nordic ones)
d. c. says:
call him yo-waka-waka and let it go.. hee hee
Kat says:
Yikes! I just call him ugly! It's too early in the morning for that ugly mug in my face.
the "u" is silent says:
stargazer...you obviously have a name that people can pronounce. as someone who has a last name that NO ONE correctly prounounces, it does get annoying. it's not like we have a say in our names, unless of course we change them. but then we would just look like divas.
STARGAZER says:
I have a first name that has an unusual spelling with 3 syllables, and I used to get a lot of mispronunciation, so I shortened it to the first syllable a long time ago and these days, zero problemos.
C says:
I have a first and last name that are hard to pronounce. People couldn't spell it and I constantly got teased for the mispronunciation issues. But now that I am older I appreciate my name much more because it's special and unique. Someone should tell pretty boy here that his name is as great as he is.
mrspuff says:
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
time for a fucking diaper change eh wä-KĒN
Reina says:
I have a strange name myself and people constantly mispronounce it. I dont' mind if you get the first letter wrong because it's not pronounced as it's written but the rest of it is VERY Self explanatory. And people call me anything from Jen (Do i look like a JEn) to Jasmine. NOT EVEN CLOSE!! Growing up I hated it bnut like another poster said, now that I'm older, I love it and appreciate the uniqueness of it all.
Question says:
Wasn't his name something else when he was little?
I thought he changed his name when he was old enough to make that decision. His whole family have names like, River, Liberty etc. Just a question?
Virginie says:
I work in an international organisation in a multicultural environnement - I am not anglophone myself - and I always try to pronounce and spell the names of the people I work with properly, I guess it is just a question of mutual respect.
Rana says:
dude..it does get annoying wen ppl mispronounce ur name wrong .. i have an unusual name myself.. they look at it and like butcher my name lol.. i get teased for wen ppl mispronounce it...and i get soo annoyed bcuz i tell ppl over and over how to say it..but NOPE.. they cant pronounce it..but i get over it eventually i guess lol
Nikki says:
to the haters, sop bitching, your just jelous.
and to the others, dont try to relate because
his name is just.....weird.
and lmfao to the first comment.
gosh he made me proud in wlak the line :)