Olivia Wilde opens up about being bullied for her original surname

Olivia Wilde has opened up about being bullied over her original surname.

The Booksmart director grew up being teased over her Scottish last name, Cockburn, but explained in a new interview that the taunts had helped her develop a sense of humour.

Olivia, who adopted "Wilde" as a stage name when she entered the entertainment industry, told Dax Shepard, host of the Armchair Expert podcast, exactly how to pronounce her real name.

"I'll tell you something - and there's no way you would know this - it's pronounced 'Coburn,'" the actress and filmmaker explained. "Which I want you to imagine being a kid, when you're... Because it's spelled 'Cockburn!'"

After explaining her family name's Scottish origins, Olivia, 42, added she had chosen "Wilde" in tribute to the Irish playwright, novelist and poet, Oscar Wilde.

But, she joked, having a name that invited teasing was "character building", and compared her experience to the classic country song, A Boy Named Sue, in which a young man whose struggle with his unusual name left him with a sharp wit.

"It's very much like Boy Named Sue, you know what I mean? Like, it's character building," Olivia said. "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."

Instead of fighting, the Invite director said, her strategy had been to join in on the joke.

"I think it was an early important lesson in laughing along - not in a way that was, like, giving into the bullies," she reflected. "I don't know, I thought it was funny too. I was like, 'Oh, I get it. That's funny!'"