Skip to content

Dwyane Wade has the hardest name to spell in sports

Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports / Action images

It's official: Dwyane Wade is really, really complicated. More so than anyone else in sports.

In a new report from the Wall Street Journal, a Factiva database count was used to gather information from over 32,000 sources worldwide to determine which athletes have the most commonly misspelled names in print and online articles.

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade is undoubtedly the leader, with 4.3 percent of articles spelling his name incorrectly as "Dwayne," and as the Journal notes, it's particularly interesting because the three-time NBA champion Wade is such a well-known figure.

Yet the Dwyane Wade case remains unusual because fame seems to help correct mistakes. For decades, America has been mystified by the spelling of Brett Favre, yet only 0.4% of the articles that referenced the ex-quarterback actually printed it phonetically as "Farve." 

Likewise, with two "z's" flanking a "y," Mike Krzyzewski may own the most notoriously hard-to-spell name in sports. But of the 98,144 articles that mentioned the Duke basketball coach, only 321 left off the first "z," and even fewer (175) forgot the second.

Can anyone be expected to spell Agnieszka or Jhonny on the first try?

[Courtesy: Wall Street Journal]

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox