11 Things You Didn't Know About Stephen Colbert
5. The T In His Last Name Wasn't Always Silent
If you've ever mispronounced the second syllable of Colbert's last name as sounding like Bert from Sesame Street, you weren't too far off. While the comedian now goes by Colbert as in "Colbear," he actually changed the pronunciation of his name later on in life.
Stephen's father James always wanted to go by "Colbear," but he kept the hard T pronunciation out of respect to his dad. Stephen also joked that his father "lacked the pretentious gene that I have." However, he allowed his kids to pronounce the last name however they wanted. For most of his early life, Stephen kept it the same as his father, but that changed when he went off to college. After he transferred to Northwestern University to study theater, Colbert saw this as an opportunity to reinvent himself in a new location, and so it was the perfect opportunity to start using "Colbear."
"I didn't know Chicago," he said. "Nobody knew me there. And I thought, 'Well, if I'm ever gonna do it, it's gonna be now.'" On that flight, Colbert was actually bumped up to first class where he sat next to an astronaut. He asked the man his opinion on whether he should adopt the soft T, and the man told him, "Well, I think you know."