Denzel Washington, known for his roles in Training Day and Malcolm X, has a message for the world: you’ve been mispronouncing his name your whole life.
The 70-year-old actor revealed the surprising detail during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, as the host brought up that there are now four NFL players named Denzel, a name that was virtually unheard of before Washington shot to fame.
But beyond the fun detail, the actor took issue with the way the host said the name.
“This is how you know they named themselves after me,” he quipped. “My name is not pronounced that way.”
Denzel Washington revealed the correct way to pronounce his name, and the curious reason behind the change
Washington explained, at around minute 8 on the episode’s clip, that the mispronunciation didn’t originate with fans, journalists, or even Hollywood, it started at home, and it wasn’t exactly a mistake.
His full name, like his father’s, is Denzel Hayes Washington. That overlap became a practical problem around the house.
“My father’s Denzel Hayes Washington Sr. I’m Denzel Hayes Washington Jr.,” he said. “My mother would say ‘Denzel,’ and we’d both show up.”
Rather than change anyone’s name outright, his mother Lennis opted for a simple but deliberate tactic: she slightly altered the pronunciation of her son’s name to tell the two apart.
“So she said, ‘From now on, you’re Denzel,’” he explained, emphasizing the clipped, second syllable that ultimately stuck.
And just like that, Den-ZEL was born.
Not DEN-zuhl. Den-ZEL.
The subtle tweak would go on to be immortalized in acceptance speeches and pop culture for decades. Now the actor surprised everyone by confirming that it was, technically, wrong the entire time.
The actor’s popularity has made the modified pronunciation more common than the correct one
Denzel Washington holding the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor he won at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990 pic.twitter.com/bNbDmpK03H
— DxTCinema (@DxTCinema) April 12, 2025
Kimmel, taken aback, paused to process what he had just heard before praising Lennis’ quick thinking. “That’s smart,” he said.
Washington nodded: “I know. There are a lot of Den-ZELs now.”
The name has undeniably become more common since his rise to fame, especially among athletes. As Kimmel pointed out, there were zero NFL players named Denzel in 1987. Now, there are four.
Still, it’s not the first time Washington has tried to set the record straight. During a 2013 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, the actor playfully trolled the host by repeating both pronunciations of his name as Norton tried to get it right.
But it wasn’t until now that he laid the truth out plainly, explaining the household confusion that originated the entire thing.
Washington is far from the only actor whose name has been routinely mispronounced by the public
Denzel’s confession comes on the heels of another recent celebrity name correction.
As Bored Panda previously reported, actress Kirsten Dunst made headlines after she told Town & Country that she’s resigned to people getting her name wrong.
“Everyone messes up my name. I don’t care,” she said.
Her name, often butchered as “Kur-sten” or “Kristen,” is correctly pronounced Keer-sten.
“You just give up,” Dunst said, adding that even people she worked with on set constantly got it wrong, especially when working with multicultural teams.
She mentioned Swedish and Hungarian crew members mispronouncing her name like it was no big deal, and after a while, correcting them just felt pointless.
Her experience lines up with what other stars have dealt with.
Lady Bird actress Saoirse Ronan has had to explain that her name is pronounced “Sur-sha.” Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy is constantly correcting people to say “Killian,” and Zendaya once had to flat-out tell a reporter it’s “Zen-day-ah,” not “Zen-die-yah.”
“The coolest.” Netizens took to social media to praise the actor’s personality
