Anne Hathaway is asking everyone to stop calling her ‘Anne,’ and would prefer anything else

• Actress Anne Hathaway told Jimmy Fallon she doesn’t want to be called “Anne” anymore.
• She said her mom is the only one who calls her Anne, and only when she’s angry. 
• The actress said she’d rather be called Annie or anything else. 
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

On Tuesday, Anne Hathaway said that her first name just “doesn’t fit” and no one in her life actually uses it.

At the start of her appearance on Tuesday’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” the late-night host mentioned that he wasn’t sure what to call her.

“I’ve known you for a pretty long time now,” he said. “I’ve heard people call you Annie, like your good friends. Do I call you Anne or Annie?”

The “Princess Diaries” star replied, “Call me Annie! Everybody, everybody, call me Annie – please!”

She said she started professionally going by Anne at 14 but didn’t realize people would call her that ‘for the rest of her life’ 

She then shared how she ended up going by Anne professionally, saying that she starred in a commercial when she was 14 and needed to get a Screen Actors Guild membership card. 

But she didn't know at the time that her career would take off and people would forever refer to her by her birth name and not her preferred nickname, Annie.

"They asked me, 'What do you want your name to be?' And I'm like, 'Well, it should be my name. My name's Anne Hathaway,'" she said. "And 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."

Hathaway said her mom is the only one who calls her Anne, and only when she's very angry 

Hathaway said that being called Anne reminds her of her mother, Kate McCauley Hathaway, being really angry at her.

"The only person who ever calls me Anne is my mother and she only does it when she's really mad at me," she said. " ... So every time I step out in public and someone calls my name, I think they're going to yell at me."

Fallon said that being referred to by his full name, James Thomas, gives him the same feeling and the pair laughed about how odd it would be if people called out his birth name on the street.

She also encouraged Jimmy and the audience to call her "anything but Anne."

"People are so lovely, they don't want to be presumptuous, and so they come up with workarounds on set because, the truth is, no one is comfortable calling me 'Anne' ever. It doesn't fit," she continued. "I'm an Annie. And so people call me 'Miss H,' people call me 'Hath,' so feel free to call me anything but Anne."

The actress also spoke about her 2 sons, Jonathan and Jack

The actress also spoke about spending time at home with her two sons - Jonathan, 4,  and Jack, 1 - who she shares with husband Adam Shulman.

"It's been a lot, but those are good ages to be home with your kids," she told Fallon. "Our 4 year old believes everything we tell him and that's adorable as well as very useful."

She said 1 is a "magic" age and it's been a gift getting to be home with her kids amid the ongoing pandemic. 

Read more:

Anne Hathaway says director Christopher Nolan 'doesn't allow' chairs on set

Every single Anne Hathaway movie, ranked by critics

Anne Hathaway says she was told not to gain weight when she was a 16-year-old actress