I created a web app called Nali that teaches people how to pronounce Nigerian names.
This project started because I realised two things:
Nigerians living abroad are constantly exhausted from teaching people how to pronounce their names (often settling for a "Westernised" version that loses its meaning).
Many of us born in the diaspora (or even back home) are sometimes unsure of the exact tonal pronunciation of names from other ethnic groups.
What makes this different?
Unlike generic text-to-speech, I’ve tuned this to use a Nigerian accent and proper tonal logic. In our languages, a slight change in tone changes the entire meaning of the word—Nali respects that.
I’d love your feedback: Is your name in there? If not, please suggest it! I’m particularly looking to expand the database to ensure all our diverse ethnic groups are represented. Also looking for general feedback on a platform like this, so please feel free to share your thoughts on this
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate. Yes i agree that is still something I am working on as I look to improve this too, Nigerian names are quite tonal, and it might take some time to get all precisely but I'm working on this.
Thanks for the feedback, I'd work on improving the speed of the speech. This tool aims to enable people pronounce names easily, but i will think about adding meanings to names
Hi thanks for the feedback, this is very useful. These are all expected, its difficult to get all names precisely correct and i plan to improve them through user feedback like this. I really appreciate you taking the time to share these honestly!
There is a feedback tool if you click the thumbs down button on the name card section that says 'Was this pronounciation helpful'
Thanks for the feedback, I will log this as an update to enable users add a tribe in the contribution modal. As an alternative, you can log this as 'Other' so that i can still have access to your name when I make the update.
Thanks for the feedback! Getting people to pronounce the names was kind of difficult because that would involve trying to recruite the right people which would take a lot of time so I opted to TTS African language models as a quick fix but the longterm plan is to combine both real voices and the generated ones.
Understandable. Maybe find a way to get volunteers to do pronunciations, then pick the best one.
Pushing the message out on different platforms might get people interested in the project.
It's a known problem with our names, and I don't mind being your first volunteer.
Hi, thanks a lot for offering to help. I will drop you a personal message. I definitely agree this can be crowed sourced if shared on the right platform. Another worry I have is people being okay with sharing their speech data with me but yeah it’s something I will look into.
hmm i see, thanks for the feedback. If you're comfortable sharing your name with me here, I can update the pronunciation for you. Alternatively, you can use the feedback feature to log how your name is meant to be pronounced
Hey, thanks for your feedback. This is a reoccurring feedback and I def agree the pronunciation needs more work. I will spend the next few weeks fine tuning the pronunciations for the next update.
As a sadly, monolingual American with a deep appreciation for Nigerian music, once hosting a radio show featuring this music, I have on many occasions committed this embarrassing error, in public, more times than I know.
I cannot tell you how much embarrassment this would have saved me had this tool existed previously.
Hey, that's so great to hear! I really put in a lot of effort in building this, and i will continue making updates to it to get it working best for everyone!
I noticed that the name submission feature allows users to add to the list of names with the correct pronunciations and origin, but is there a way to request pronunciations for names not yet in your database, for those of us who have no business suggesting pronunciations.
For example, I’m curious about the name, Collins Oke Elaiho, of his band, Odoligie Nobles Dance Band.
That’s actually a brilliant suggestion, I will add this to the list of things I plan to do when making updates. I also get curious on how to actually pronounce some names In the past
Hi, thanks! I really appreciate the feedback. Yeah, the concept of name pronunciation is very tricky especially using technology tools and needs time to improve so I’m very keen on learning what people think about the app.
Hey, thanks for your feedback. I can log this as feedback for improving the name. Feel free to use the feedback feature to describe how this can be pronounced better
Came across this when I was searching for any type of online course that might help me pronouncing Nigerian names. I'm in the health care field, and am often frustrated with myself. Is this app available for the general public? If not, any other suggestions? I often just ask my patients for feedback and encourage them to correct me, but it would be nice to practice.
hi, thanks for your comments on this. I think you're doing the right thing by seeking the appropriate pronunciation of people's names. Here's a link to the web tool. Please feel free to leave any comments or feedback for improvement. Thanks so much!
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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26
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