You May Be Mispronouncing Chad Kroeger's Surname

Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger says people have been saying his surname wrong for decades.

The 48-year-old Canadian singer noted in a recent interview with iHeartRadio’s Rock 95.5 in Chicago that the proper pronunciation is crew-ger, not crow-ger.

Kroeger said he’s never really bothered to correct people.

“It's hard because someone will say... ‘Hey, we've got Chad [crow-ger] here from Nickelback’ … and there's this massive, five-minute long thing, this diatribe, that goes on about accolades and what not.

“And at that point in time I'm supposed to say ’It's [crew-ger]’? I just gotta let this one go.”

Kroeger was born Chad Turton in Alberta but he was given his mother Debbie’s maiden name after his father left. His maternal grandfather Henry was born in Moscow but came to Canada when he was just nine years old with parents Heinrich and Helena Kröger, who were Mennonites of Prussian descent.

“We left the umlaut off when the grandparents came over from Germany,” Kroeger explained.