10 Town Names That Are Fun to Pronounce If You’re a Michigan Native

If you know, you know.

Not everyone can be so fortunate as we who live in the Great Lakes State. In addition to using our hand as a map to point out where we're from, we lucky Michiganders get not just one but two peninsulas to explore, and we share an international border with neighboring Canada.

Get our free mobile app

As a Michigan native I'll find any and every excuse to brag about my home state. I remember during the 7 years I was living out of state in the Midwest I started to sound like a broken record to my new-found friends in Nebraska and Missouri because I would always find a way to tie any movie, landmark, invention, or even a game we were playing, back to its Michigan roots. 

However, one of the ways I felt most like an outside was when I would mispronounce the surrounding town-- a dead giveaway that I'm not a true local! I had to make a pointed effort to commit names like Cairo (Care-o) and Lebannon (Le-ban-ann) to memory.

Thankfully, I've returned to my home state where everything makes sense again! Kind of. One of my favorite "flexes" is to be able to rattle off some of Michigan's most unique-- and most mispronounced-- town names without batting an eye.

Now, that's not to say I'm perfect and there aren't still a few town names that trip me up like Peshawbestown, Ossineke, Bois Blanc Island, just to name a few. Especially as we approach the busy tourist season be listening for some of Michigan's most mispronounced names to be mentioned: