Denzel Washington Reveals We’ve All Been Saying His Name Wrong

Denzel Washington is sharing the real way to say his name.

The Highest 2 Lowest star — whose full name is Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. — revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Sept. 2 that most people say his name incorrectly, and recounted how his mother, Lennis Washington, influenced the pronunciation that stuck.

He explained his name after host Jimmy Kimmel noted to Washington that there were “currently four players named Denzel in the NFL.” He added, “There weren’t that many before your first Oscar [award]. There was zero in 1987.”

“I know. There’s a lot of Denzels now,” the actor, 70, chimed in.  

“And this is how you know they named themselves after me, because my name is not pronounced Denzel. My name is pronounced Denzel,” he continued, emphasizing the clipped “e” vowel sound at the end of his name.

Washington went on to say that since he and his father shared the exact same name — with him being “junior” while his father was “senior” — when his mother would call out the name “Denzel” the both of them “would show up.” This prompted her to give him a different pronunciation of his name to tell them apart. 

“So she said, ‘From now on, you’re Denzel,’ ” he recalled using the longer “e” vowel sound that he is known for today. “That’s how it got pronounced ‘Denzel.’ ”

“She said [to me], ‘You’re Denzel.’ [And to my father,] ‘You’re Denzel…,’ ” he said using the two pronunciations. 

“Oh that’s smart,” Kimmel, 57, remarked, before continuing to rattle off the names of NFL players from 1987 — three years before Washington’s first Oscar win in 1990 for Best Supporting Actor in Glory. The list included Doug, Earl and Cornelius — but no Denzel.

The Fences star joked that he should receive some recognition for inspiring the names of so many football players since 1987. He said, “There ought to be some kind of compensation for this, shouldn’t I?”

Kimmel agreed, saying, “You should get a small percentage of each jersey sale.”

Washington went on to win another Oscar in 2002 for Best Actor in Training Day. However, despite earning the top acting accolades, The Book of Eli star recently admitted that he didn’t act “for Oscars.”

“I’ve been at this a long time, and there’s times when I’ve won, shouldn’t have won, didn’t win, should have won,” he explained during a chat with his Highest 2 Lowest costar Jeffrey Wright. “Man gives the award, God gives the award. I’m not that interested in Oscars. People say, ‘Well, where do you keep it?’ I say, ‘Next to the other one.’ “