How do you say Johni Broome? Backstory, pronunciation of Auburn ...

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If you've been following college basketball this season, you've probably heard Johni Broome's name. But if you don't know how to say it, you're not alone.

Auburn basketball's All-American big man breezed through the Tigers' nonconference by making things difficult for opponents, and while his name may be a difficult pronunciation for some on and off the court, fret not. Both his first and last name may look deceiving, but they're not as had to say as they may appear.

Just know it's not pronounced "Johnny," nor is his last name said any differently than it looks. In terms of the phonetic alphabet, it's: j-UH-nEYE br-OOM.

"It honestly is always a conversation, and it's always been mispronounced," Broome's mother, Julie Broome told the Montgomery Advertiser. "It's John-i. Johni. When you say it together, it's just John-i. ... I think, sometimes, people put too much emphasis on it, or it's just where they're from or how their accent is. But it's not Johnny. It can look like Johnny, but to me, Johnny could be spelled five or six different ways. So, I get it."

How Auburn basketball's Johni Broome got his name

Inevitably, Johni's name has family ties, but those go a bit deeper than just sharing a surname with his mother, father and siblings. In a way, Broome's family actually share similarities in each of their names, and it's part of the reason he wears No. 4.

"My husband is John Sr., and my oldest son is John Jr., and when we had Johni, when we knew we was having my second son, we wanted our kids' names to be unique, ... just have their own personality, have their own name, let it be something that you're not one of many," Julie said. "With that comes character and strength, so we decided, after a couple of different options, it was going to be Johni."

The Broome family refers to themselves as "The J.A.B. Five," since each member of their family, including Johni's sister, Jade'a Broome, have the same three initials. With Johni being the fourth member of his family, that's, in part, where his jersey number comes from, Julie said.

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To this point, few others are making as convincing a case to be National Player of the Year as Broome.

In 15 games, he leads the Tigers in points (18.7), rebounds (11.2), assists (3.4) and blocks (2.7). Those rebound and block averages also lead the SEC and are top-10 nationally.

While he's in his third season on the Plains, Broome began his college career at Morehead State, choosing the Eagles over just two other Division I offers out of high school, Bryant and Jacksonville. In two seasons at Morehead State, Broome was named All-Ohio Valley Conference twice, and earned the league's Freshman of the Year honors for the 2020-21 season before being named its 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year.

Ranked as one of the big centers in the portal when he transferred, Broome chose Bruce Pearl and the Tigers over Todd Golden and Florida.

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.