When it comes to Hollywood action stars, few names sound as tailor-made for the big screen as Vin Diesel. After all, could there be a better name for an actor best known for explosive car movies?
But as iconic as it sounds, ‘Vin Diesel’ isn’t the name he was born with. And no, he didn’t adopt it just to align with his Fast & Furious persona, though that would have been a cool move.
Some fans are only just learning of Vin Diesel’s real name. Credit: Lionel Hahn / Getty
Diesel, 57, spilled the truth about his name back in March 2005, during an appearance on The Ellen Show, a year before The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift hit theaters.
Host Ellen DeGeneres wasted no time in calling him out, saying his name couldn’t possibly be real. Diesel didn’t even try to dodge the question.
“You know what, it’s not,” he admitted, before revealing that his real name is Mark Vincent.
The actor explained that he picked up the now-iconic moniker back when he worked as a bouncer. He and his coworkers would use “fictitious names” on the job, just in case they ever “got in trouble”.
“They just started calling me Vin Diesel, for some crazy reason,” he recalled. Ellen quickly figured out that ‘Vin’ came from his last name, Vincent. But what about ‘Diesel’?
“In New York, when you were kind of built up a little bit, they’d say ‘that guy’s Diesel’,” the actor explained.
The nickname stayed with him throughout his nine years as a bouncer, and when Hollywood called, Vin Diesel was the name on the credits.
Diesel is best known for the Fast and Furious franchise. Credit: Archive Photos / Getty
Even though Diesel made this revelation two decades ago, plenty of fans are just now discovering the truth, and their reactions range from amused to mind-blown.
One Reddit user quipped: “He actually got Vin from Vehicle Identification Number.” Another commented: “It’s funny, even with a name as ridiculous as Vin Diesel I never even questioned whether that was his real name or not haha.”
A third said: “I just assumed he was a ‘Vincent’ who used Vin instead of Vinny as a nickname,” and a fourth shared: “Diesel is the actual last name of the guy who made the first diesel engine.”
“Does not look like a Mark,” one more added.
Real name or not, one thing’s for sure – Mark Vincent became Vin Diesel the moment he hit the big screen.
