You might not have known this, but beloved TV and film star, Jennifer Aniston’s name isn’t actually her real name.
That’s right, people.
The Friends actress has been in the spotlight for over four decades and little did anyone know that she has a very different surname than we’re used to.
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However, when she was starring on the hit network show alongside Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, Courtney Cox and Matt LeBlanc, there was a little nod to her name that you may have missed.
Born to Days of our lives star John Aniston and mother Nancy Dow in 1969, the actress grew up in New York, and knew she wanted to be an actor at age 11 when she found out it was a profession while attending a Waldorf school.
From then, she landed herself some minor roles until her calling came in 1994 when she became known as Rachel Green for the next decade.
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While we’ve always known her as Aniston, fans were shocked to realise that there was a very fleeting nod to her heritage in the episode where Monica and Chandler got married.
If you watch it again, Rachel is looking for a priest as Joey is running behind filming a war film with Gary Oldman, and because he’s supposed to officiate the wedding, they need a back up person to fill the slot.
That’s when she goes to another wedding in a separate hall and realises that the Greek wedding official would not be appropriate for Monica and Chandler.
It was there, at the sign for the Greek wedding that the surnames of the couple are displayed.
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They read as Anastassakis and Papasifakis.
As it turns out, that’s Aniston’s real surname, which was Americanised when her father moved from the Greek island of Crete to the US.
His own father, Aniston’s grandfather, was an 'Anastasakis' and a Greek native.
This little titbit would go largely unnoticed by everyone, but at least Aniston knew it was for her.
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On Reddit, fans expressed their shock to find out her name is different and what was even more shocking to them is that she has Greek heritage.
One person wrote: “What? That is brand new information!”
Someone else said: “I saw this awhile ago, but definitely didn’t know she was Greek for a long time or that this was her original family name from Greece. Cool detail. I like that she pronounces it for us too.”
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However, a lot of people argued that it was never her name to begin with as the name was changed when her father moved to the US as a toddler, therefore, she was born as an Aniston.
But that doesn’t change her name origins, or her history.
Aniston hasn’t been shy about talking about her heritage, as the Greek Reporter noted her as thanking her genes for her great looks.
She said: “My dad is 100 percent Greek; he turned 81 and he barely has a wrinkle. And neither does my grandmother, who was 95 when she died”.
Maybe that’s her secret.
Topics: Friends, TV And Film, Jennifer Aniston, Celebrity, Reddit
Britt Jones