We've All Been Saying Brendan Fraser's Name Wrong Apparently

If you believe it should rhyme with "razor" you can be proud. This is exactly how the surname should sound, Brendan Fraser has told Adam Sandler during Variety's Actor on Actor appearance. The two Hollywood stars had a funny exchange.

"When I first met Brendan Fraser... that's your full name right? Brendan Fraser?" Adam Sandler asked Fraser, pronouncing the middle "z" sound as in the word "treasure".

"It's Fraser..." The Whale actor corrected Sandler, stressing the correct pronunciation of the middle "s". Sandler had another go but got it wrong again. This is when Fraser brought in the rhyme of the word "razor".

"You shave with a razor," said Fraser, making a shaving movement with his right arm as he made a jab at Sandler.

If Fraser does not seem like a very difficult name to pronounce, try this: Saoirse Ronan. While most of us will struggle to get the name of the Lady Bird star right on the first go, it is pronounced as "SUR-sha". The actress has Irish heritage, and the Gaelic language has its peculiarities as far as the pronunciation is concerned.

There are other actors' names which some find hard to pronounce, such as Ewan McGregor. While there should be no problems with his surname, the name can be tricky. It should be pronounced as "YOO-uhn" and never as "EE-van". But what about Ralph Fiennes. It seems simple to say but in fact it is not. The name is pronounced as "Reyf" just like in the world "safe" while the surname sounds like "fines".

One of the most hilarious conversations about the names was when William Dafoe appeared on Conan talk show and was shown an old tape showing him as an acting student. In the clip played the young Dafoe pronounced his surname as "DAY-fo" instead of generally recognized "Duh-FOW". When asked how it happened the Jocker actor joked that it was all because of dentists.

"You've let everyone mispronounce you name for like forty years," Conan O'Brien exclaimed.

William Dafoe replied saying that his family is split over how to pronounce the name. "One part of my family pronounced it "DAY-fo", the other half pronounced it "Duh-FOW. But I've found that like when you go to the dentist or something, you check-in, I'm William "DAY-fo" they would say 'Okay, Dave!'." He said that "Duh-FOW" flowed better and in the end when he became an actor this variant of the name had a nicer sounding.

Quite a razor-sharp explanation.