The Most Horribly Mispronounced New Jersey Town Names

Aug 04, 2023

The summer season has arrived in New Jersey and that means lots of people are visiting the Garden State from other parts of the country and world. We love them but that doesn't mean they aren't butchering the pronunciations of some of the New Jersey towns we love.

We always hear some really bad New Jersey town name mispronunciations, but it is never more frequent than during a New Jersey summer.

So we thought we’d put together a list of the top 5 most mispronounced town names we hear and a guide of sorts to help our visitors do a better job saying them for the rest of the summer. We hope this helps.

Manalapan. The last syllable is not pronounced like the kitchenware you fry things in. It's spelled ‘pan’, but it's said ‘pin’. Muh-na-lu-PIN.

Forked River. No, it's not the past tense of fork. It's weird to say it this way, but it's actually FOR-kid River.

Avon-by-the-Sea. If you’re saying it like the cosmetic company name, you’re butchering it. Here's how it's properly pronounced. A (short A)-von.

Barnegat. If you say the last syllable in a way that rhymes with cat, you need to read on. It's supposed to be BAR-nih-git with a hard ‘g’.

Mantoloking. We once heard a New York newsman call it man-TAH-lug-king. Really? I’m case you heard that newscast, please forget it as quickly as you can and insert the pronunciation MAN-tuh-loe-king into your brain.

We’re sure there are more, but we figure this is a good start. The summer is young.