What does it take for a legend to get a little respect on her own show? Why Mariska Hargitay makes them misspell her name on Law & Order: SVU set

What does it take for a legend to get a little respect on her own show?

Why Mariska Hargitay makes them misspell her name on Law & Order: SVU set

What does it take for a legend to get a little respect on her own show?

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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October 26, 2025 8:00 p.m. ET

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Mariska Hargitay on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'. Credit:

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Mariska Hargitay can't get no respect — not even on her own show.

The TV legend and daughter of Hollywood icons Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay knows she has a unique name. But she gets tired of the mispronunciations.

"Oh, I still live with it," she told Amy Poehler on the latest episode of her *Good Hang *podcast. "Who was it last night? Oh, I had a lunch yesterday — brunch, for my sister, and my cousin was there. I've known him since 1994, and he kept calling me Ma-ris-ka." (Hargitay pronounces her first name as Ma-rish-ka.)

The actress said she nearly corrected her own flesh and blood as to the hidden "h" in the pronunciation, but decided to let it go. But the same behavior won't stand on *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*.

"When it happens, because it happens on set a lot, now on the call sheet, it's M-A-R-I-S-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-K-A. That's how I put it on the call sheet, just so people go, 'Oh, okay, got it. She's big on the Hs."

Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Hargitay continued that she's heard endless permutations of her name. "Maritza, Marcika, Markiska, but [Christopher Meloni] will call me Maritza on set," she shared.

Born Mariska Magdolna Hargitay in 1964, the actress has previously explained that her "whole name is my dad's mother's name." The name is from Hungary, the country of origin of her father, whose full name was Miklós Károly Hargitay.

The Emmy winner joked to Poehler that in Hungarian, Mariska means "gorgeous, talented one, ray of sunshine, queen of, queen of — queen of something." Getting serious, she elaborated that the name is actually "a nickname for Maria. It means little Maria. In Hungarian, the K-A or K-E on the end of a name, it just is a little endearment. So the name is actually Maria, after my grandmother."

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It's hard to believe there's anyone left on the *SVU *set that would mispronounce Mariska, given she's led the show across its full, 26-year run on NBC.

As Detective-turned-Captain Olivia Benson, Hargitay has tussled with some of New York City's most rotten criminals, and shared the screen with some of Hollywood's brightest stars. Mickey Hargitay, whom she revealed is not her biological father in the recent documentary *My Mom Jayne*, even appeared in a guest role on the season 5 episode "Control," his kindly grandfather providing a statement to Benson after he witnesses a bleeding man fall and die.****

Watch Hargitay's full *Good Hang* episode above.**

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