Mariska Hargitay finally reveals how to pronounce her name

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After over thirty years in the acting world, Mariska Hargitay is finally clarifying the correct way to say her name.

On Tuesday’s episode of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, the 61-year-old actress shared the correct way to pronounce and the meaning behind her Hungarian name.

Mariska, the daughter of the late actress Jayne Mansfield and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, explained that her name is a shortened version of Maria, meaning ‘Little Maria’.

She explained that the ‘ka’ or ‘ke’ ending in her name is a term of affection, similar to a nickname. Her name is actually ‘Maria,’ honoring both her Hungarian and Italian grandmothers.

Even though she’s a well-known actress on Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay says people – even her family – often mispronounce her name.

I remember having lunch yesterday with my sister and my cousin. I’ve known him since 1994, and he kept mispronouncing my name, calling me “Muh-ris-kuh.”

Instead of correcting the family member, she said she ‘let it go.’

It’s something she’s also had to deal with at work on the set of her long-running NBC show.

Tired of constantly correcting how her name was spelled, she listed it as “Marishhhhka” on the call sheet.

Mariska Hargitay said people often mispronounce her name, saying it as ‘Muh-ritz-uh,’ ‘Mar-see-kuh,’ or ‘Mar-kis-kuh.’ She added that her co-workers sometimes playfully call her the wrong name.

She premiered her documentary My Mom Jayne at Tribeca Festival in June.

She explained to Stephen Colbert that she felt prepared to finally make the documentary, 58 years after her mother’s death, and that’s why she did it now.

The Emmy-winning actress shared, ‘It feels like everything in my life has led me to this moment.’

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she found boxes of fan mail addressed to her mother.

Hargitay described being able to carefully read through everything she found, noting that the letters and playbills people sent were incredibly meaningful gifts.

‘So, I said, “I think I wanna dig in here,”‘ she added about feeling inspired to create the film.

The documentary included a surprising announcement: the filmmaker’s biological father is Nelson Sardelli, a former Las Vegas performer, not Mickey, who raised her as his daughter.

The investigation uncovered that Mariska’s siblings were rescued from the crash that took their mother’s life, but they later discovered, to their horror, that Mariska had been accidentally left behind.

She was later found wedged under a seat with a head injury, at just three-years-old.

Her brother, Zoltan, explained that Jayne was originally riding in the back, but she’d moved to the front seat after getting into a disagreement with her boyfriend, Sam Brody.

The children were asleep in the back of the Buick Electra and thankfully survived the car crash, though Jayne, Sam, and the driver, Ronald Harrison, did not.

My Mom Jayne premiered on HBO Max on June 27. 

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2025-10-22 03:52