Call her by her name.
Olivia Wilde set the record straight on how to pronounce her real last name, Cockburn.
âIâll tell you something. And thereâs no way you would know this. Itâs pronounced Coburn (KOH-burn),â the director told Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on the âArmchair Expertâ podcast Monday.
âItâs spelled Cockburn. Itâs a Scottish name. Itâs very much like Boy Name Sue ⊠like, itâs character building,â the 42-year-old added.
âI think itâs important â we should all give our kids devastating middle names. Just so that you can grow up with something to be totally bullied for.â
Though Wilde said she was made fun of for her unique last name, she believes it was an âearly important lessonâ in being able to laugh along.
âI thought it was funny, too. I was like, âOh, I get it,ââ she recalled.
The actress chose to change her last name to Wilde in high school to honor the legendary Irish author and poet Oscar Wilde.
In a previous interview with Playboy, the âDonât Worry Darlingâ star said she also wanted to honor the writers in her family, âmany of whom created pen names for their careers.â
âI have a grandfather who changed his name to James Helvick to write the novel âBeat the Devilâ, which got turned into a movie with Humphrey Bogart,â she shared.
âI always thought having a pen name was so romantic. I honestly didnât foresee that people would look at it as a sexy name, like, âSheâs wiiiild!ââ Wilde added.
âAnytime a story is written about me, the title is usually some pun on my last name: âBorn to Be Wildeâ or âTake a Walk on the Wilde Side.â I donât mind it; itâs just not something I ever considered when I picked the name.â
Wildeâs mom, Leslie Cockburn, is an award-winning investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker and author who produced for â60 Minutes.â
As for her dad, Andrew Cockburn, he is a British journalist, author and magazine editor who produced documentaries for PBS.
Wildeâs paternal grandfather and some of her aunts and uncles are also writers and journalists.
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