People searching for information about the Conwy village Betws-y-Coed on its tourist website typed 364 different misspellings of the name.
Website managers discovered the wrong search terms included "Betsy Cowed" to "Bwtsy Code".
Kevin Jones, who runs the website, said he had thought there may have been around 30 misspellings in a year but was "astounded" when he found so many.
"I'd like to know if any other place in the UK is as misspelt," he said.
Mr Jones said he was amazed that all the people who wrote the name wrong into a search engine had actually got to the website.
"Some of the names were unrecognisable," he said.
"But my criteria for counting the misspellings was that at least three people would have spelt it that way - and that they had viewed pages on the website after using them.
"I think we must be the most misspelt place names in the UK - I challenge people to let me know if we're not."
Mr Jones himself pronounced Betws-y-Coed wrong when he arrived in the Snowdonia village, which is popular with tourists, with plans to set up a B&B after serving in the air force.TEN MORE TRICKY WELSH PLACE NAMES FOR TOURISTS
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio-gogogoch
Cwmrhydyceirw
Penpedairheol
Maentwrog
Dwygyfylchi
Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant
Rhosllanerchrugog
Fochriw
Ynysybwl
Ystradgynlais
"I called it 'Betsy-Cowed' and someone else had told me, 'Why don't you set up a B&B in Betsy-Cowed, it's lovely there'.
"But when I got here, someone said to me: 'If you want to run a business here, at least pronounce it right.'"
Since then, Mr Jones has encountered numerous mispronunciations during phone calls and misspellings in letters.
He decided to check how many times it was spelt wrong in search engines over a year in 2011 after he noticed a few mistakes.
"I thought if there was 30 I'd send a tweet out about it.
"I was astounded when there were 364 - I was hoping I'd get another one so there'd be a misspelling for every day of the year. But I couldn't under the criteria I'd set myself."
"I think part of the reason for the mistake is historical," he said.
"People have spoken to each other giving it the wrong name for a long time - Betsy-Cowed."
Eileen Burtonwood, chair of the Betws-y-Coed and district tourism association, said: "I couldn't believe how many different versions there were, quite honestly. I would have guessed there would be 50 or 60, but not 364.
"The staggering thing is that when we totalled them up, we only counted versions which had been used by at least three different people."
Ms Burtonwood, who runs the Tan Dinas bed and breakfast in the village, said most people who'd searched for the website - over 25,000 - had managed to spell the village's name correctly.
But she doesn't believe the spelling issue will put people off coming to Betws-y-Coed, which means prayer-house in the wood in English.
"It might be more of a problem if they were already in the area, and were asking for directions to 'Betsy Coed'. But most of the locals are used to visitors having trouble saying the name, and take it in good humour."
She joined Mr Jones in throwing down a challenge to other towns and villages in the UK to see if there's anywhere else where the name has been spelled so many different ways.
She added: "I'm sure there's a few contenders here in Wales, and plenty in England, like Keighley, Haworth and even Loughborough, which are easy to get wrong."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17061776
Betws Y Coed.
Betws Y Coed.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Betws Y Coed.
So how do you pronounce it? 
Re: Betws Y Coed.
'Betws-y-Coed' of course!
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
Re: Betws Y Coed.
Ten dollars to the first person who posts an audio recording with the correct pronunciation of this one, on the list:
"Ynysybwl"
(It would be worth ten bucks just to hear someone try to do it...)
"Ynysybwl"
(It would be worth ten bucks just to hear someone try to do it...)
Re: Betws Y Coed.
Bet-oos uh coy-dkristina wrote:So how do you pronounce it?
Un-iss-uh-bullLord Jim wrote:Ten dollars to the first person who posts an audio recording with the correct pronunciation of this one, on the list:
"Ynysybwl"
(It would be worth ten bucks just to hear someone try to do it...)
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Betws Y Coed.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Betws Y Coed.
So the proper way to pronounce Welsh words is to imagine the presence of vowels where none exist.... 
Re: Betws Y Coed.
Exactly Jim. It's worth remembering that when you ask a Taff to pronounce one of their place names, that initial sound you hear is not them clearing their throat... that's the pronunciation.
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
Re: Betws Y Coed.
La Jolla, anyone?
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
yrs,
rubato
Re: Betws Y Coed.
Evolution...
Cop these Jim;
Odd pronunciation of proper names
Interestingly, Launceston in Cornwall is pronounsed "Lan-son", Launceston in Australia is pronounced "Lawn-cest-tun". The Aussie town was Settled by Europeans in March 1806, so the divergence isn't that old.
Cop these Jim;
Odd pronunciation of proper names
Interestingly, Launceston in Cornwall is pronounsed "Lan-son", Launceston in Australia is pronounced "Lawn-cest-tun". The Aussie town was Settled by Europeans in March 1806, so the divergence isn't that old.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Betws Y Coed.
In Massachusetts:
Lieciester=les-ter
Ayer=air
Of course, Massachusetts also has a "Braintree"...
Lieciester=les-ter
Ayer=air
Of course, Massachusetts also has a "Braintree"...
Treat Gaza like Carthage.
Re: Betws Y Coed.
It's actually "Tems" Jim...Lord Jim wrote:How about pronouncing "T-H-A-M-E-S, "
"Tims"....
How'd that happen?
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
Re: Betws Y Coed.
How about names?
Any of our American chums willing to take a punt and pronounce these?
Featherstonhaugh
Grosvenor
St John-Smythe
Raymond Luxury-Yacht
Any of our American chums willing to take a punt and pronounce these?
Featherstonhaugh
Grosvenor
St John-Smythe
Raymond Luxury-Yacht
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
Re: Betws Y Coed.
I can say them.
All apart from the last one. That is unless it is pronounced "Raymond Luxury-Yacht"? cause I CAN say "Raymond Luxury-Yacht" without any trouble at all!
When we were over in the UK I made a point of only using Australian pronunciation for all place names. I also made sure I shortened them and added either an "o" or a "y" to the end of them. (Lano, Paddy, etc)
Much fun was had, (if not by all, at least by me)!
All apart from the last one. That is unless it is pronounced "Raymond Luxury-Yacht"? cause I CAN say "Raymond Luxury-Yacht" without any trouble at all!
When we were over in the UK I made a point of only using Australian pronunciation for all place names. I also made sure I shortened them and added either an "o" or a "y" to the end of them. (Lano, Paddy, etc)
Much fun was had, (if not by all, at least by me)!
Bah!
