Most of us would probably say Waitrose wrong.

Here’s how Waitrose got its name and how we should pronounce it

The correct way to pronounce the name of a UK supermarket chain Waitrose It has reportedly been ‘settled once and for all’.

Annabel Port, curator of The Other British Museum, regularly takes to social media to unearth everyday objects that have come to symbolize modern Britain. In a recent post, he explained in detail the origins of how Waitrose got its name. British history buffs, who aim to support “Britain’s unsung icons and the stories behind them”, have identified more than 88,000 of them Instagram Followers that “you (Waitrose) might be wrong”.

Annabelle added: “It’s the number one most luxurious British supermarket. It was the first supermarket to sell organic food in 1983 and pre-packaged sushi in 1996. And we’ve been calling it wee-tros (sic), but is that right?”

Highlighting the retailer’s roots, he explained that the chain evolved from a small grocery store in west London, originally known as Waite, Rose and Taylor, “founded by Messrs Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and David Taylor”.

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Taylor left several years later and in 1908 the name was shortened to Waitrose. Annabel contacted the supermarket straight away to find out if the name should be pronounced ‘wet-rose’.

He said: “I contacted them to find out and they said Wet-Rose is the original way of pronouncing it because it comes from the founders’ last names, Vet and Rose. It’s not clear when it changed to Wey-Trose but it gradually became the norm.

“If you want to be both perfect and retro, you should say wet-rose.”

The social media post has drawn hundreds of comments, with one user writing: “Can’t tell you how many times I’ve said ‘wet-rose’ and ‘way-troys’ trying to figure out how they differ. They both sound exactly the same to me” (sic).

Another said: “My mum (80) says wet-everyday and I always give her a look” while a third said: “I’m going to start today. Just need an excuse to put it in a sentence.”