Will Ferrell Explains Why His Actual Name Bothered Him as a Child
Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig share their favorite part of working on ‘Despicable Me 4’
When there’s a Will, there’s a way.
And that’s why Will Ferrell decided not to use his legal name. Originally named John Ferrell, the Saturday Night Live alum recently opened up about his discomfort with using a different name for his entire life.
“This is a minor issue—it’s not really trauma—but I remember feeling so ashamed because my real name is John, John William Ferrell, so on the first day of school, I would be John,” he revealed to Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler on the July 9 episode of the MeSsy podcast. “The teacher would say ‘John Ferrell?’ and it was so embarrassing to me to have to say ‘Here, but I go by Will, I don’t go by John.’”
The 56-year-old—whose parents chose to call him ‘Will’ instead of using his first name from birth—described the first week of school as “painful” as he patiently awaited for the teachers to catch on, but he couldn’t explain why it affected him so deeply.