Joshua Goldman
Joshua Goldman
min read · September 4, 2025 · Entertainment

Name Game: Steve Buscemi and the Many Pronunciations of 'Buscemi'

Steve Buscemi has revealed how he and his family actually pronounce their last name - and the answer is different to the way his fans say it

The Celeb Name Game: Stars Reveal Their Secret Pronunciations

In a shocking turn of events, Hollywood's A-listers have been spilling their deepest, darkest secrets - and we're talking about something even more personal than their love lives or career struggles: how to pronounce their own names!

In the latest installment of this juicy saga, Steve Buscemi has finally broken his silence on the infamous pronunciation of his surname. For decades, fans have been saying it "Boo-SHEM-ee," but little did they know that the actor himself had a different take on it.

Throughout his glittering decades-long career, conventional wisdom has held that the Fargo star's surname sounds like: 'Boo-SHEM-ee'; pictured in June at the Tribeca Festival

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Buscemi confessed that growing up in Brooklyn's Little Italy with parents from Sicily didn't exactly teach him to pronounce his name the traditional way. "We said BEW-sem-ee," he revealed, chuckling at the memory. "And now I say Boo-SEM-ee."

But don't worry, folks; Buscemi isn't entirely abandoning the classic pronunciation. He likes to mix it up a bit, throwing in some "Boo-SHEM-ee" for good measure - much to the delight of his fans.

This celebrity name game has been gaining momentum over the past week, with Denzel Washington dropping a bombshell about his own moniker. It turns out that his mother deliberately changed the pronunciation from "DEN-zull" (which was shared by his father) to "Den-ZELLE" when he was just a young boy.

His revelation came one day after Denzel Washington dropped the bombshell that his name was originally also pronounced differently than the way fans now say it

"I mean, we'd both show up, and she's like, 'From now on, you're Den-ZELLE. You're DEN-zull, and you're Den-ZELLE,'" Washington recalled in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst has been dealing with her own name woes for years. "Everyone messes up my name," she's said before, but we now know the correct pronunciation is indeed "KEER-sten." Although, she's pretty laid-back about it: "I'll answer to KRIS-ten, KUR-sten, or even just Kirsten - I don't care!"

This trend has got us thinking: what other secrets are our favorite celebrities hiding in plain sight? Are there more name confessions waiting to be unearthed?

Last month Kirsten Dunst shared that 'everyone messes up my name,' explaining that the correct pronunciation is: 'KEER-sten,' via Town & Country

In the world of Hollywood, where names can make all the difference, it's clear that some stars have been keeping their secret pronunciations under wraps for far too long. Will this newfound transparency change the way we think about celebrity culture forever?

Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: when it comes to these A-listers' names, there's more than meets the eye.

Sources:

  • The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
  • The Scholarly Note (thescholarlynote.com)