Rihanna is known around the world as one of the biggest names in popular music. She has an impressive 14 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Her Super Bowl halftime show got all of America talking and she stunned with her performance at the 2023 Oscars.

However, despite being a household name, it seems most people haven't been pronouncing her name correctly. Most people say "ri-AH-nuh" when pronouncing her name. However, Rihanna's name is actually pronounced "ree-ANN-uh."

The mispronunciation is something the singer herself has talked about, but doesn't seem to be all that bothered by.

It recently became a trending topic when Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel pronounced her name correctly during his opening monologue.

Rihanna Clarified The Correct Pronunciation Of Her Name When Speaking To Ellen In 2010

In 2010, Rihanna was enjoying a very successful period of her music career. Her songs were climbing the charts and her fans were growing in abundance.

It was during this period that Rihanna appeared on the February 1 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Rihanna was there to kick off the show's Grammy week. She performed two of her hits during the show. She opened with her hit "Don't Stop the Music" and closed with her song "Hard.

" She also sat down with DeGeneres for an interview.

During the interview, Rihanna chatted about her new tattoo and her dating life. DeGeneres questioned the singer about her rumored relationship with baseball player Matt Kemp after pictures of the two together appeared online.

"I'm single," Rihanna said, avoiding one of DeGeneres' follow-up questions about Kemp.

"Don't get too close up on me, camera guy — I see you over there," Rihanna joked as she pulled her shirt back to show her tattoo. The tattoo read "Never a failure, always a lesson" backward, so the words could be read correctly when looking in a mirror.

The conversation then turned to the correct pronunciation of her name. Although Rihanna didn't seem to mind people pronouncing it differently, DeGeneres insisted people pronounce it correctly.

"I think it's my accent, it makes me say 'Ri-anna,'" Rihanna said.

Jenna Ortega Pronounced Rihanna's Name Correctly While Presenting At The Golden Globes

After many years of hiatus, Rihanna finally returned to music in 2022. She contributed the song "LIft Me Up" to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. The song was very successful and got nominated for several awards. Among them was the Best Song in a Motion Picture award at the 2023 Golden Globes.

When actress Jenna Ortega took the stage to present the award, she ran through some of the nominees before announcing the winner.

"I'm gonna get to original song in a minute, we got artists like Taylor Swift and Rihanna competing for that award," she said.

"I know, I'm very excited," Ortrga added, following cheers from the audience.

Many users on social media noticed the way Ortega pronounced Rihanna's name. Some were confused and thought maybe she was wrong. However, the majority of people were quick to point out that she was actually correct.

As a result, Ortega received praise online for actually pronouncing Rihanna's name correctly. There were also many users who admitted they had been pronouncing Rihanna's name wrong this entire time.

Jimmy Kimmel Was 'Obsessed' With Pronouncing Rihanna's Name Correctly At The Oscars

"Lift Me Up" was also nominated for Best Original Song at the 2023 Academy Awards. While she didn't win, her performance of the song was well received.

Jimmy Kimmel's hosting duties were also well received. One of the major moments everyone discussed on social media actually happened during his opening monologue.

Many noticed the way Kimmel pronounced Rihanna's name.

As with Ortega, there was a bit of confusion at first, because most people seem to pronounce it differently. However, it was soon understood that Kimmel, like Ortega, pronounced it correctly.

When speaking to Variety, Kimmel's wife and executive producer, Molly McNearney, said Kimmel goes out of his way to find the correct pronunciation to people's names.

"Jimmy is obsessed with pronouncing people's names correctly," McNearney said. "There is a guy at the show whose job is to find the pronunciations. We always find video of the person saying their own name on camera.

And that is the way you pronounce Rihanna."

She then referenced an interview the singer did with HLN clearing it up and said, "Jimmy said, 'I want to call her the way the name that she calls herself.' And that's how she says it in Barbados."

"It felt funny to people," McNearney said. "Now America knows how to pronounce her name, although they won't. They'll just assume Jimmy f***** up, but no, he did not!"

McNearney went on to say that Kimmel actually "had two versions of the monologue" whose jokes depended on who was in their seats for that portion of the show.

"One if Rihanna was in her seat, one if she was not in her seat," she explained. "One if Rihanna had her baby on her lap, which she wanted to do. And one if her baby was not on her lap. A lot of our jokes were kind of at the mercy of people being in their seats."