How Do You Pronounce Dogecoin?

Dogecoin is considered the first “meme coin” and, more specifically, the first to feature a dog. Despite its satirical nature, many investors consider it a legitimate investment prospect that boasts a large online community. On May 5, 2021, Dogecoin reached a market capitalization of over $85 billion.

Dogecoin, abbreviation: DOGE; sign: Ð,  is a cryptocurrency created a decade ago in December 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer (then an adobe system marketer). The two decided to create a payment system as a “joke” to make fun of Bitcoin and the many other cryptocurrencies boasting grand plans to take over the world.  With the help of Reddit, the coin became an instant internet sensation.

Dogecoin is based on the Scrypt algorithm, and the transaction process is more convenient than Bitcoin. Now, let’s learn how to pronounce Dogecoin.

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What is in a name? 

Cryptocurrency Dogecoin features the face of the Shiba Inu dog Kabosu with a sidelong glance from the popular meme featuring Doge.

The meme generally entails a picture of Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog, accompanied by colorful text in Comic sans font. The text, representing a kind of internal monologue, is deliberately written in the form of broken English.

Since the inception of the meme, spin-offs have been created, including “liquified Doge,” a variation wherein the dog’s shape is morphed into other animals, and “Baby Doge,” a younger of the Shiba Inu dog meme.

How to pronounce Dogecoin

While it is one of the hottest cryptocurrencies in the world, many investors can’t help but wonder whether they use the correct Dogecoin pronunciation.

The word Doge is a deliberate misspelling of ‘Dog.’ So it does not have an obvious pronunciation. Most conversations about Dogecoin take place on text-based Internet forums and social media. 

While people send and receive Dogecoin daily, they could theoretically go dog years without actually mentioning the word.

The question remains: how exactly is Dogecoin pronounced?  Does the ‘ge’ turn into a ‘j’ sound? Is the ‘e’ silent, or is it pronounced like in Dog-E-coin? Someone could easily say “dodge” to be smooth on the tongue for a two syllable word.

Variance in location

Doge pronunciation varies across different English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries.

The name also has preferential pronunciations (fav cryptocurrency); some prefer to pronounce the first syllable like “dog” or “doggy,” or even those favor “dodge,” “dohg koin,” or “dog-ee koin.”

According to Know Your Meme, Doge’s first mention appeared in the 2005 episode of the Homestar Runner puppet show. In the video clip, the character Homestar Runner tells Strong Bad, “Strong Bad, you crack me up. That’s why you’re my d-o-g-e.” “Your dog?” replies Strong. “What are you talking about?”

Based on its lineage, maintaining the same pronunciation would make sense, right? But what does the Doggy community think should be the proper pronunciation?

Redditor, Palmer & Markus conclusion

A Reddit user – u/peoplma, a moderator on the social news site’s r/Dogecoin forum, explained that there is no correct pronunciation, and anyone who tells you that you are pronouncing it wrong is lying.

In 2014, IBM Times UK interviewed Palmer and Markus; this was their opinion on the correct pronunciation.

Palmer: Officially’ it’s something like ‘dohjcoin,’ referring to the Homestar Runner pronunciation that Strong Bad gave. I’ve pronounced it every way, though, do-ge coin, dog-coin, doggy-coin; whatever is the most amusing at the time.

Markus: Originally, I started pronouncing it with a hard “g” but have recently moved toward a softer “g” sound – like in “giraffe.”

Curious cursory research reveals how some slang dictionaries and authority sites chose to pronounce Dogecoin.

Wikipedia refers to the Homestar Runner puppet show to provide the pronunciation of Doge /ˈdoʊ(d)ʒkɔɪn/ DOHJ-koyn or DOHZH-koyn. 

Dictionary.com provides the Doge pronunciation as ‘ dohj koin’ or ‘dohg koin’ or ‘dog-ee koin.’

Conclusion

The moral here is that you cannot enforce a single, universal pronunciation of Dogecoin digital currencies; it is mainly antithetical to the community spirit of the project. The Dogecoin community sprouted organically to support it is light-hearted and whimsical. There’s nothing less whimsical and light-hearted than correcting someone’s pronunciation.’

Markus and Palmer created Dogecoin, and we can take the tip from them. The peer-to-peer-based coin continues to enjoy a significant following, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and mentions in major publications like the Wall street journal.