A master’s graduate submitted the phonetic spelling of her name for graduation, and the announcer still got it wrong three times

A master’s graduate from Manchester Metropolitan University says her graduation ceremony was overshadowed after her name was mispronounced multiple times, despite submitting the correct phonetic spelling ahead of the event. The story gained traction when reported by The Tab, which detailed how a graduate named Ledine shared a TikTok video documenting the moment the announcer got her name wrong on stage. She had gone through the university’s registration process specifically to prevent that outcome.

In her video, Ledine said, “I didn’t spend thousands on a Master’s degree just to have my beautiful African name mispronounced.” She later confirmed in the comments that the speaker had not followed the phonetic guide she submitted. The post drew a wave of responses from other graduates who described similar experiences at their own ceremonies, with one commenter writing that Manchester Met was “so bad” for the issue and another noting simply that saying someone’s name correctly is “the bare minimum.”

As The Tab detailed, other students reported similar problems beyond Ledine’s ceremony. A graduate named Elouise said she was the first to walk at her own event and also had her name mispronounced, calling the moment “so embarrassing.” Additional commenters said their Maltese and Polish surnames had been misread during their own walks across the stage.

Advocacy groups say the mispronunciation issue points to a bigger problem

Name pronunciation has become the focus of broader advocacy efforts in recent years. The My Name, My Identity campaign, created by the Santa Clara County Office of Education alongside the National Association for Bilingual Education, argues that correctly saying a person’s name is tied to a sense of belonging and to healthy social and educational outcomes.

The organization encourages institutions to formally pledge to pronounce names correctly and invites people to share their own name stories. A message that has resonated in other contexts, including a graduation ceremony controversy that also drew attention this year over how schools handle milestone events.

The pushback from graduates has echoed a wider pattern of people using social media to call out institutions over how they handle personal identity. A theme that has also surfaced in unrelated stories about families navigating name changes and the reactions those decisions can spark online.

Manchester Metropolitan University has been contacted for comment regarding the reports from its recent ceremonies. As of now, no public statement addressing the mispronunciations has been issued.