{"id":242761,"date":"2025-10-22T05:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242761\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T05:20:09","slug":"svu-star-mariska-hargitays-own-family-still-mispronounces-her-hungarian-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242761\/","title":{"rendered":"‘SVU’ star Mariska Hargitay’s own family still mispronounces her Hungarian name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

You’ve likely been pronouncing Mariska Hargitay’s<\/a> name wrong.<\/p>\n

Everyone’s favorite TV law enforcement officer confirmed fans, friends and even her own family haven’t quite mastered the pronunciation of her first name.<\/p>\n

Hargitay revealed the correct way to say her name is “Muh-rish-kuh” during an appearance on Amy Poehler’s podcast, “Good Hang<\/a>.” According to Hargitay, the name Mariska is actually a nickname that means “Little Maria.”<\/p>\n

“In Hungarian, the \u2018ka\u2019 or \u2018ke\u2019 at the end of the name is just like a little endearment,” she explained. “So the name is actually \u2018Maria\u2019 after my grandmother, both of them, Hungarian and Italian.”<\/p>\n

STEVE BUSCEMI ADMITS EVERYONE PRONOUNCES HIS NAME WRONG, INCLUDING HIMSELF<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mariska <\/p>\n

Mariska Hargitay revealed her name is often mispronounced. (Jose Perez\/Bauer-Griffin\/GC Images)<\/p>\n

After 26 years of filming the popular crime drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit<\/a>,” Hargitay noted people still can’t pronounce her name correctly. Even her own family still struggles to get it right.<\/p>\n

“Who was it last night? I had a lunch yesterday \u2013 I had a brunch yesterday for my sister and my cousin was there,” she told Poehler.<\/p>\n

“Your own cousin?” Poehler questioned.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve known him since 1994, and he kept calling me \u2018Muh-ris-kuh.'”<\/p>\n

\"Mariska <\/p>\n

Mariska Hargitay’s first name is Hungarian. (Nathan Congleton\/NBC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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\"Mariska <\/p>\n

Mariska Hargitay stars as Captain Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”\u00a0 (Jose Perez\/Bauer-Griffin)<\/p>\n

Instead of correcting her cousin, Hargitay revealed she chose to just “let it go.”<\/p>\n

To combat mispronunciation on the set of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” Hargitay has her name written as “Marishhhhka.”<\/p>\n

LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mariska <\/p>\n

Mariska Hargitay revealed her name is pronounced “Ma-rish-kuh.” (Scott Gries\/NBC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“I get called \u2018Muh-ritz-uh,\u2019 \u2018Mar-see-kuh,\u2019 \u2018Mar-kis-kuh,'” she explained.<\/p>\n

Hargitay joins a group of celebrities who have been speaking out about the mispronunciation of their names. Denzel Washington<\/a> and Steve Buscemi have both attempted corrections recently.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of “Denzell,” Washington’s name is actually pronounced “Denzull.”<\/p>\n

Buscemi doesn’t actually know the correct way to actually pronounce his name, but has landed on “Boo-Semi” for his version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! You’ve likely been pronouncing Mariska Hargitay’s name wrong. Everyone’s favorite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,1306,92],"class_list":["post-242761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-trending-news","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}