A banner in Tonga welcomes Prime Minister 'Jacinta' Ardern. Photo / Gia Garrick
Tonga is giving a warm welcome to "Jacinta" Ardern, the latest bungle of the Prime Minister's name.
In giant type on an enormous banner, the spelling error was hard to miss.
"Welcome to Tonga Rt. Hon Jacinta Ardern Prime Minister of New Zealand", it read.
Ardern and her delegation are making several stops in the Pacific, departing Niue for Tonga yesterday afternoon.
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She has also visited Samoa and is to stop by the Cook Islands.
It's not the first time Ardern's name has been bungled in recent memory.
Last Friday Australian defence industry minister Christopher Pyne referred to Ardern as "Jessica" on Nine's The Today Show.
Host Ben Fordham was quick to pick up on Pyne's blunder, and asked the MP if he meant to say that.
Fellow panellist Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese also attempted to correct his Liberal counterpart, but he seemed to suggesting her name was "Jacinta".
After bemused looks and laughter from Fordham and Albanese, Pyne corrected himself.
"I'm having one of those mornings," Pyne said.
And it seems even Labour Party members have struggled.
In February, a plaque on a door to Dunedin Labour rooms was unveiled honouring Jacinda "Adern".
Ardern herself did not notice the error until media brought it to her attention.
"Oh, they are missing an 'r'. Hilarious! Common. Very very common," she said.
"I hope they keep it that way."
Why? "Because the day that Norman Kirk opened those rooms, a seagull pooped on him. So there's got to be something that happens to me. A misspelling is probably better."
Ardern is not alone in hearing some interesting versions of her name.
In October last year, former Labour leader Andrew Little was mentioned in a leaked Wikileaks email.
Well, sort of.
The innocuous email referred to an "Andrew Liddle" who would be visiting Washington and New York in December.
And in 2011, former US President Barack Obama twice got former Prime Minister John Key's name wrong while meeting him, calling him "John Keys".
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