Will Ferrell refused to go by his real name growing up. “I think definitely being funny was an easy way to make friends,” Mr. Ferrell started.
“Not to feel like being an outsider, and then it was a way to ingratiate yourself to a group. “This is like 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 [on the] first day of school, it’d be John,” he said. “The teacher would be like, ‘John Ferrell?’ It was so embarrassing to me to have to say, ‘Here, but I go by Will.
I don’t go by John.’” A week would go by before his teachers would remember to say “Will” instead of “John,” which was an agonizing experience for the comedian. “It took like a week before the teacher remembered, ‘That’s right, you’re Will,’ and that was excruciating,” he said.
“So the beginning of the school year was always like, ‘Oh my gosh, I hate this.’” When asked why he didn’t like the name “John,” Mr. Ferrell said it wasn’t his choice, as he was called “Will” growing up despite having a different legal name.
He recalled other students questioning him about declining to be called “John.” “I don’t know why that was so embarrassing [for] me to have to explain I’m actually ‘Will,’” he said. “People are probably going to be listening to this going, ‘This is the lamest thing ever.
’” The “Anchorman” star shared that his ha.