How to pronounce Tikhonov

Tikhonov is most commonly pronounced "TEE khuh nawf" (/ˈtiːxənɔf/). This is one of several readings in active use; the developer community hasn't converged on a single answer.

Tikhonov regularization (= ridge regression / L2 penalty; also ill-posed inverse problems) is named after Russian mathematician Andrey Tikhonov. Russian Ти́хонов = [ˈtʲixənəf] (per Wiktionary): stress on the FIRST syllable — TEE-khuh-nawf (the reduced final vowel is closer to 'nuf') — with a guttural 'kh' (/x/, a single throaty sound, not 'k-h') and a final 'v' that devoices toward 'f'. English speakers almost always shift stress to the second syllable, tik-HOH-nov, and say a plain 'k' + 'h'. The name also surfaces transliterated as 'Tychonoff' (Tychonoff's theorem in topology), reinforcing that the 'kh' is one guttural sound.

Alternate readings you might hear:

• "tik HOH nov" /ˌtɪkˈhoʊnɒv/

Source: Wikipedia § Andrey Tikhonov (mathematician)

Pronouncing project and product names correctly avoids the small but persistent friction of being gently corrected during standups, conference Q&As, and team calls. Hearing the word a few times locks in the right reading better than reading IPA ever will. Pronounce is a community-maintained dictionary — every entry tagged with a confidence level and (where possible) a citable source.