Will Ferrell Reveals Why His Real Name “Embarrassed” Him Growing Up – E! Online

Where there’s a Will, there’s a way. 

And that’s why Will Ferrell chose to not go by his legal name. Born John Ferrell, the Saturday Night Live alum recently detailed why he felt self-conscious going by a different name for his whole life. 

“This is a minor thing in terms of—it’s not really even trauma—but I remember feeling so embarrassed because my real name is John, John William Ferrell, so first day of school, I’d be John,” he explained to Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler on the July 9 episode of the MeSsy podcast. “The teacher would be like ‘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 opted to call him ‘Will’ rather than by his first name from his birth—described the first week of school as “excruciating” as he waited for teachers to catch on, but he couldn’t pinpoint why it bothered him so much.