We’ve all been pronouncing Denzel Washington’s name “wrong” for years—at least, wrong according to Denzel Washington himself.
During a 2025 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the Oscar-winning actor explained that the common emphasis many people use on the second syllable isn’t how his name was originally said in his family. Washington clarified that the correct pronunciation puts the stress on the first syllable—closer to DEN-zuhl (with the second syllable sounding like “lull”).
What Denzel Washington Says the Correct Pronunciation Is
Washington’s point wasn’t that people are “butchering” his name so much as that the mainstream version became popular—and stuck—despite not being the original family pronunciation. In the segment, he demonstrates the difference and makes it clear he’s heard the “wrong” version for most of his career.
Why the “Wrong” Version Took Over
Here’s the twist: Washington says the alternate pronunciation started at home.
He explained that he’s Denzel Hayes Washington Jr., named after his father (Denzel Hayes Washington Sr.). To avoid confusion when calling them, his mother began pronouncing his name differently so it was obvious which Denzel she meant—son or father. Over time, the “son version” became the one the public latched onto, and it’s the one most people still use today.
That means the widespread mispronunciation isn’t just a random public mistake—it’s partly a byproduct of a family workaround that escaped into the world.
So… Have We Really Been Saying It Wrong?
If you want to be technically accurate to what Washington said on TV, yes, most of us have been stressing the name differently than how he says it should be pronounced.
But there’s also a reality check: Washington has been publicly known by the common pronunciation for decades, and he doesn’t frame it like a scandal—more like a funny, long-running detail that finally got explained on a late-night couch.
