7 Words That Exist Only Because People Mispronounced Them First

"Ekename" meaning "added name" was the original word, but the phrase "an ekename," caused people to change it to "nickname."

 "Cherise" or "cheris" was the singular Old French version of the word. 

The word was original "ewt" but was misheard so often that people started saying "newt."

The word umpire came from the Middle French "nonper," meaning "without peer; peerless," but was later changed to "nompere" or an "ompere."

Alligator came from the Spanish word for lizard, "el legarto." Since "el" accompanied the word so often, it became a part of the English word. 

"Napron" was the Old French version of the word, but was misheard so often, that the "n" was dropped in the 1600s. 

The original word for the small vegetable was "pease" and it was singular. In the 17th Century the word was reanalyzed and the singular version was changed to "pea."