Sam Neill Explains Why He Doesn’t Use His ‘Embarrassing’ Birth Name: ‘Best Decision I Ever Made’

8 comments

1. > “That’s embarrassing that you know that,” Neill, 76, said. “I was christened Nigel Neill — that’s like my parents giving me a disadvantage from the start.”

   > When Clarkson, 42, expressed she feels the name Nigel Neill “is strong,” the actor distinctly disagreed and said that he received some unfortunate childhood nicknames as a result of his birth name. “No, no, you never want to be called Nigel. It’s also called ‘Nigel No Mates,’ you know, ‘Nigel No Friends,’ ” he said.

2. He seems to be in good health and he’s still so handsome! A very talented actor!

3. Nigel Neill totally sounds like a UK pornstar name.

4. If Idris Elba went by Idrissa, we’d be living in a different world right now too haha so many actors either change their name completely or use shortened versions/middle names for a variety of reasons. I know the story late with Emily Stone on how she wants to be called Emily, but Emma has stuck with her and she had to go with Emma because when she was starting there was another actress named Emily Stone in the guild. She’s another, if she started off as Emily instead of Emma, would she be who she is today?!?

5. Nigel Neill? Thats not embarassing at all. I just had a customer from my job who’s last name is literally “Porn”. A town I grew up near has a family name on a few businesses known as “Knauf” I heard there was one of them named Jack but I cannot confirm that. One of the pricipals from my high school back in the late 1990s was Richard Licker.

6. Turd Ferguson is a funny name.

7. Nigel Hawthorne made it work.

8. I knew someone whose last name was “Raper”. I think that is worse.