Adlai Stevenson II, former governor of Illinois, was the Democratic nominee for president in 1952 and 1956. Stevenson and his grandfather, former vice president Adlai Stevenson I, endured mispronunciations of their first names throughout their political careers. Although the slogan on this button implies that “Adlai” rhymed with “badly,” it did not as the grandson explained in a 1952 letter to the International Mark Twain Society:
Mark Twain has always been one of my favorite persons, although I have always felt he was somewhat responsible for the confusion that exists as to how to pronounce my first name. While my grandfather, Adlai E. Stevenson, was vice president under Grover Cleveland, Mark Twain was at a luncheon where grandfather was a guest. The newspapers of the time quoted Mark Twain as follows on the pronunciation of my first name:
Philologists sweat and lexicographers bray,
But the best they can do is to call him Ad-lay.
But at longshoremen’s picnics, where accents are high,
Fair Harvard's not present, so they call him Ad-lie.
Anyway, the correct pronunciation is ‘Ad-lay,’ although to put it mildly, I have been called many things.
One thing Adlai Stevenson was not called was president. He lost both times to the Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower.