First, a somewhat tangential question: How would you – yes, you, dear reader – answer the question posed in the headline? If you were a New Yorker, you might call her office and ask. What could be easier? But, that direct method aside, you – and most of us – would probably seek the answer to the question on the internet. That’s what I did.

Of course while the internet is a source of much information, it is also – alas – a source of much misinformation. So, I didn’t want to rely on a how-to-pronounce website (though several got it right for Senator Gillibrand). But I found two sources, which I was more confident that we could rely on in this instance and were in agreement: the New York Times and New York Magazine – their reporters apparently called the office of the Empire State’s junior senator.

First name first (courtesy of NY Mag):

It’s KEER-sten, not KUR-sten, and definitely not KRI-sten. An easy way to remember it: “KEER-sten drinks BEER.” (Legal note: We don’t know if she drinks beer.)

Last name (NY Times):

“It’s a sibilant G,” an aide in her office in Hudson said, with the air of someone who has had a lot of practice. “JILL-uh-brand.”

So there. Ignore any variations to the contrary.

Image: screen grab of a how to pronounce website featuring an aptly characteristic quotation from Dale Carnegie  (the pronunciation of whose name fails to generate a consensus among the competing sites).