You’ve Been Pronouncing This Hawkeye Football Star’s Name Wrong

If you're an Iowa football fan, you know the name Nico Ragaini. As of late, it's been because the Hawkeye offense could desperately use his talent.

The East Haven, Connecticut native has produced solid numbers each of the last three seasons in Iowa City. Between 2019 and 2021, Ragaini hauled in 90 receptions for 961 yards and scored four total touchdowns. Not gaudy stats, but he's a wide receiver who has been around the program and Spencer Petras for a long time. He's been missed to start 2022.

Here's a look at the biggest play of his career so far:

Lucky for Hawkeye fans, he finally made his way to the field this weekend in Iowa's 27-0 win over the Nevada Wolfpack. He caught two passes for 56 yards.

Now, just a few days later, we got some other news about the Iowa wideout. Apparently, we've all been pronouncing his name wrong.

Well, kind of.

Chad Leistikow, who covers Iowa football for the Des Moines Register, asked Ragaini for clarification on the pronunciation of his last name.

His response?

Why? Did my parents say (something)?

By the looks of it -- someone in his family did:

As you see in the tweet that a relative of Nico quote-tweeted, his last name is pronounced 'Rag-ah-ee-knee,' and we all had no idea. For five years.

As far as I can tell, most people -- including myself -- have been pronouncing it 'Ruh-gai-knee.'

Clearly, if you've watched the brief video from Leistikow, it doesn't bother the senior that much.

As someone with a tough-to-pronounce last name (Clough, take your guesses now), I have no idea how Ragaini has just let this go basically the entirety of his whole Hawkeye career. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, but if my name is regularly being announced somewhere, I'll definitely see what I can do to get it corrected.

Several times in basketball and football games and track events, folks heard quite the variety of pronunciations of my name. One time, in 6th-grade football, we heard 'Eric Klugg.'

Most of the time when folks try to pronounce it they go for 'Kloo,' Kloh,' or 'Kloff.'

Nope. Close, but no cigar. Like my Twitter bio says, it's 'Clough, like rough and tough.'

Or Kluff. Whatever floats your boat.