We’ve Been Saying Denzel Washington’s Name Wrong This Whole Time

Denzel Washington just let the world know that they’ve been pronouncing his name wrong for decades.

For nearly 50 years, Washington has evoked a range of emotions from viewers, and now he’s sticking true to form and bringing shock to the masses. The veteran actor moseyed his way down to the “Jimmy Kimmel Show” on Wednesday and discussed how his name has been pronounced wrong all these years.

“Do you know there are currently four players named Denzel in the NFL,” Kimmel revealed to Washington.

This prompted the late-night host to inform Washington that there were “zero” players with the name in 1987, which made the “Fences” actor note that the players’ parents “named” their kids after him. This led Washington to share a memory from his childhood about his moniker.

“My name’s not pronounced Denzel. My name’s pronounced Den-zel,” he revealed, emphasizing the clipped “e” vowel in his name.

This pronunciation came to light thanks to his father. You see, Washington himself is a Jr. His father’s name is Denzel H. Washington Sr. But this nomenclature caused confusion in the actor’s household, and so his mother made an executive decision.

“My mother would say Den-zel, and we both show up. So she said, ‘From now on, you’re Denzel,’” he said, emphasizing the longer “e” that we have all grown accustomed to.

Kimmel responded, “Oh, that’s smart.”

Kimmel went on to jokingly say that the actor has “dominated the name category” in the NFL, to which Washington quipped, “There ought to be some kind of compensation for this. Should there not?”

Watch the full interview here.