"David Marriott, chairman of the board of Marriott International, settled a decades-old pronunciation debate this week during an event with loyalty members at the company's headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. The third-generation hospitality executive revealed the correct way to say his family's name-and it's probably not the way you've been pronouncing it. Speaking to a group of 75 loyalty members, in a moment that's been widely shared on TikTok, Marriott explained that the hotel chain's name should be pronounced "marry-et," not "marry-ott." The pronunciation rhymes with "chariot," emphasizing the final sound as "et" rather than "ott.""
"To illustrate his point, Marriott shared a personal story involving his wife, a former English teacher who taught at East High School in Utah-the same school where "High School Musical" was filmed. Marriott said his wife had a student, named Elliot, who kept addressing her as "Mrs. Marriott," using the incorrect pronunciation. "She finally sat Elliot down one day, and she said, Elliot, how do you pronounce your name? He said, Elliot. He said, that's right. It's not Elli-AHT. It's Elliot. It's the same way with Marriott," Marriott said on stage. The Marriott empire traces back to 1927, when David's grandfather, J. Willard Marriott, opened a nine-stool A&W root beer stand in Washington, D.C., with his wife Alice and business partner Hugh Colton, according to the company's website."
David Marriott clarified that the family name Marriott is pronounced "marry-et," with the final "et" sound rhyming with "chariot," rather than "marry-ott." He addressed 75 loyalty members at the company's Bethesda headquarters and noted the pronunciation has been commonly misused. He illustrated the point with a story about his wife, a former English teacher, correcting a student named Elliot on the pronunciation of his name and comparing it to Marriott. The company began in 1927 when J. Willard Marriott opened a nine-stool A&W root beer stand in Washington, D.C. David Marriott became chairman in May 2022 and is the third chairman in the company's nearly century-long history.
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