You’re saying it wrong. Or maybe not.

Book week seems to be an appropriate time to talk about Theodor Seuss Geisel - also known as Dr Seuss.

Do you know how to correctly pronounce his name? It’s been anglicised by most of us to suːs, but that’s not how he pronounced it - it actually rhymed with “voice” (his own pronunciation was sɔɪs).

This is probably not surprising to anyone who is likely to read my blog, and there are a number of articles to this effect around the internet (but let’s just point to Wikipedia because writing something without giving reference to those that came before is a scourge that needs to be eradicated).

Alexander Laing, one of his collaborators on the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, wrote the following:

You’re wrong as the deuce
And you shouldn’t rejoice
If you’re calling him Seuss.
He pronounces it Soice (or Zoice)

However… Geisel was pragmatic. He switched to the common pronunciation because:

  • it “evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children’s books to be associated with — Mother Goose”; and
  • most people used the pronunciation

So, it’s Dr Soice, or Dr Seuss. Doesn’t matter. Just keep reading.