Blake Lively Hates Her Middle Name — Here’s Why

Blake Lively has never been a fan of her unique middle name. During a sit-down with MTV UK to promote her new film It Ends With Us with co-star Isabela Ferrer, the actress, 36, revealed it was husband Ryan Reynolds who was able to help her appreciate the middle name she joked her mom made up “by accident.”

Trying to guess Lively’s middle name in a clip from the interview shared on Instagram, Ferrer, 24, racked her brain, saying, “Oh my God, you’ve said it before.” After several failed guesses by Ferrer, Lively joked with her co-star, “It’s not a name. My mom, I think, made it up by accident,” assuring her, “It’s not a word, it doesn’t exist.”  

With some more hints from the Gossip Girl alum, Ferrer threw out “Delanor” as a guess, prompting Lively to finally reveal her middle name is actually “Ellender.” With Ferrer comparing the name to Harry Potter‘s Professor Dumbledore, Lively laughed, “I’m not Dumbledore, it’s Ellender,” joking, “Though Dumbledore, honestly – probably a better option.”

Lively continued that when she was growing up, she was always “confused” by her non-traditional middle name. “So, I always hated it,” she said, looking to the camera to apologize “if there’s any Ellenders watching this.” 

The A Simple Favor star continued that it was her movie star husband who managed to change her attitude concerning her middle name. “But my husband loved it, which made me like it more,” Lively said of the Deadpool & Wolverine star, 47, adding that Reynolds thought her middle name sounded like “lavender.”

Ferrer agreed with the comparison between lavender and Ellender, noting that the name actually sounds quite posh. “It sounds very elegant and graceful,” Ferrer said, adding that Lively’s middle name sounds “royal” as if she could be called “Lady Ellender III.”

Reynolds and Lively have embraced a mixture of traditional and unique names for their own kids. Since tying the knot in 2012, the couple has welcomed daughters James, 9, Inez, 7, and Betty, 4, and son Olin. The father of four announced in February that he and his wife had added their son to the family, but has yet to disclose more details about the birth of his youngest.