Will Ferrell Recalls Being ‘So Embarrassed’ by His Real Name Growing Up: ‘It Wasn’t My Choice’

Will Ferrell’s legal first name is not Will, and it bothered him at the start of every school year as a kid.

When Ferrell, 56, appeared on Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s MeSsy podcast on Tuesday, July 9, to discuss the 20th anniversary of the pair’s comedy classic Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, he confessed to Applegate, 52, that he felt embarrassed when people would address him as John, his legal first name, when he was growing up.

After Applegate asked Ferrell, who rose to fame as a Saturday Night Live cast member in the 1990s, whether he always liked being part of groups growing up, he recalled that he felt “being funny was an easy way to make friends” as a kid before bringing up his real name.

“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. 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.’ ”

Ferrell described having to wait through the first week of school before his teachers would remember he went by Will as “excruciating to me.” “It wasn’t my choice,” he said, when Applegate asked about his disdain for the name John. “My parents named [me] John but they called me Will. I grew up as Will, but on a rule sheet, my legal name is John Ferrell.”