Anne Hathaway Explains Why She Hates the Name Anne—And What She Prefers to Be Called

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Anne Hathaway is synonymous with some pretty iconic names. There's Mia Thermopolis, the princess of Genovia, and Andy Sachs, the princess of Runway magazine's fashion closet. She's played Fantine, Jane Austen, and the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland, just to name a few more. However, there's one name she no longer wants to be associated with: her own. 

“Call me Annie. Everybody, call me Annie, please,” the actor said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on January 12. “Can we talk about my name for a second?”

Hathaway immediately jumped into a story about her name, which just boils down to that she didn't think to choose a stage name when she was a kid. “When I was 14 years old, I did a commercial and I had to get my SAG card,” she explained. When SAG asked what she should be called, it seemed obvious that she should go with her given name.

“My name's Anne Hathaway. So that seemed like the right choice, but it never occurred to me that for the rest of my life people would call me Anne,” she continued. “The only person who ever calls me Anne is my mother, and she only does it when she's mad at me. Like, really mad. So every time I step out in public and someone calls my name, I think they're gonna yell at me. People are like, ‘Anne!’ And I'm like, ‘What? What did I do?’”

In fact, Hathaway claims no one in Hollywood calls her Anne. “People are so lovely; they don't want to be presumptuous, and so I think they come up with workarounds on set,” she said. “Because the truth is nobody's comfortable with calling me Anne ever. It doesn't fit. I'm an Annie.”

The actor then offered some potential alternatives to those who feel calling her Annie would be too casual (I, for one, would never). “People call me Miss H. People call me Hath, so feel free,” she said. “Call me anything but Anne.”


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Originally Appeared on Glamour