Olivia Wilde is an inherently awesome name, but it's also too good to be true. That's right: Olivia Wilde was actually born one "Olivia Cockburn." She changed her name when she was just a teenager as an ode to one of her favourite writers, Oscar Wilde, because she felt like having a pen name was romantic. In her own words:
"It was meant as an homage to the writers in my family, many of whom created pen names for their careers. I have a grandfather who changed his name to James Helvick to write the novel 'Beat the Devil', which got turned into a movie with Humphrey Bogart."
Of course, Wilde's name is often thought to add an extra oomph to her already overwhelming sex appeal, though the actress doesn't see it like that, exactly:
"I honestly didnt foresee that people would look at it as a sexy name. Like, 'Shes wiiiild!' Any time theres a story written about me, the title is usually some pun on my last name. 'Born to be Wilde' or 'Take a Walk on the Wilde Side.' I dont mind it, its just not something I ever considered when I picked the name."
C'mon, Olivia: don't pretend you didn't know that "Olivia Wilde" was a sexy name.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
