America’s fascination with Pete Buttigieg, the half-Maltese, liberal mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who officially announced that he is running for President last weekend, continues unabated.

Besides generating interest for his progressive policies, his love of reading and languages, and his dedication to the community, Pete’s vowel-heavy Maltese surname is giving talk-show hosts a lot of fuel.

After his appearance on Ellen, it was Jimmy Kimmel’s turn to shine the spotlight on the prospective President. “He would become our first openly gay president, and our first President Pete,” Jimmy joked, adding that the latter sounded like the title of a Kevin James movie.

Jimmy then moved on to Pete’s surname, Buttigieg, which many Americans have trouble getting their tongue around. In a nod to this, Mayor Pete’s merch on his website includes a mug with a handy pronunciation guide on it (Boot-edge-edge).

“You know you have an uphill battle ahead when your campaign slogan is explaining how to pronounce your name,” chortled Jimmy, adding that the meaning of the surname (owner of chickens) was not exactly ‘Mother of Dragons.’

The next segment featured Americans on the street attempting to pronounce Buttigieg, with varying results, including ‘Boot-get’, ‘Booty-Greg’, and ‘Butt-Gang’.

“It probably means a guy with a nice butt,” one commenter speculated, while another guessed it was either a weird sexual position, or a town in Austria.

However, one guy managed to get it close enough – maybe those ‘Boot-edge-edge’ mugs are working after all!

Has anyone ever messed up the pronunciation of your surname?