I came across an article recently that said we’ve all been pronouncing Mount Everest wrong. It was named for a Welsh surveyor and geographer, George Everest. Except he pronounced his last name EEV-rest, not ever-est! Everest served as the surveyor general of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, which scientifically mapped the Indian subcontinent. It was his successors idea to name the peak after him. Of course, the mountain had several native and traditional names in Nepal and Tibet, but those areas were closed off to the British at the time. Everest had no direct connection with the mountain, and was against the name. He was concerned that native speakers wouldn’t be able to pronounce it and that there was no way to write the name in Hindi. Nevertheless, the Royal Geographical Society voted his name onto the mountain, and we’ve been mispronouncing it ever since. Learn more here.