Ralph Fiennes' fans are just finding out his real name - and how to pronounce it

• Showbiz
• Harry Potter

British actor Ralph Fiennes has been in the public eye for more than 40 years and has starred in some iconic roles, but people are only just realising they have been pronouncing his name wrong

People are only just finding out Ralph Fiennes' real name(Image: Getty Images)

Ralph Fiennes, the acting legend with over four decades in the film industry and a resume that boasts roles like the fearsome Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and a recent gig in the 2024 flick Conclave, is a global sensation.

But hold on, do you even say his name right?

The star's been a bit miffed about the whole name pronunciation game and reckons he should've set the record straight years ago.

Chatting to the Hollywood Reporter, Ralph said: "There is a story and sometimes I wish I had fixed it earlier on. There is a tradition in the UK, in England of pronouncing ‘Ralph’ as ‘Rafe’. It’s one of those weird peculiar English things where something is pronounced completely different from how it’s spelled.

"But I believe my father named me after his step-grandfather his name was Ralph Eastwood, nicknamed Rusty, but spelt R-A-L-P-H. And I wanted to, I suppose, honour my parents giving me this name and keeping up the spelling but I have - I’ve come on occasion to regret it because it would be easier."

And now? Well, he reckons it's "too late" to teach an old dog new tricks, saying: "That was the name I was born with and I sort of have some weird thing about I'm sticking with what I was given."

Some people have been pronouncing his name wrong too(Image: Getty Images)

A Reddit user sparked a viral discussion about the pronunciation of actor Ralph Fiennes' name, leaving many shocked to discover they had been mispronouncing it. One user explained on the platform: "It's pronounced Rafe, and yes, it is some British thing! Not all Ralphs in England pronounce it "Rafe," but some do - it's a holdover from the shift in vowel sounds around the time of Shakespeare. The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is another famous Ralph-pronounced-Rafe from the UK."

Another user queried: "While we're at it, the surname: do you or do you not pronounce the s? " to which someone responded: "I've always heard it without the S. So basically 'Rafe Fine'".

"I used to think Ralph was always pronounced Rafe in the UK. But then I saw Pearl Harbor and then Rafe Spall happened, so I realised it's a different name," commented a third person. While another added: "If you find his first name tough, wait till you see his FULL name: Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes."