In case you didn’t know, Olivia is the daughter of journalists Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, which means — you guessed it — her actual name is Olivia Jane Cockburn. (She chose the stage name “Wilde” as a tribute to the Irish poet, Oscar Wilde.)
Olivia’s parents are accomplished in their field, and so it’s no surprise that Dax decided to bring them up. But, before the conversation even got going, Olivia called him out on his mispronunciation of her real last name.
“I’ll tell you something — and there’s no way you would know this — it’s pronounced ‘Coburn,'” Olivia told Dax. “I want you to imagine being a kid, when you’re… Because it’s spelled ‘Cockburn!'”
Explaining that the pronunciation comes from the name’s Scottish origins, Olivia said that having “Cockburn” as a last name was “character building” for her and her siblings growing up.
“I think it’s important — we should all give our kids devastating middle names just so that you can grow up with like something to be totally bullied for,” she said, adding that the childhood teasing was “an early important lesson in laughing along.” “Not in a way that was, like, giving into the bullies in a way. I don’t know. I thought it was funny too. I was like, ‘Oh, I get it. That’s funny.'”
When Dax suggested that the teasing might not be as bad today, Olivia had to disagree. “I think having the last name that looks like ‘Cockburn’ in any city in any decade…,” she said, to which Dax agreed: “It’s too easy.”
“You’re always gonna learn to laugh early,” Olivia added.
