MovieChat Forums > Thandiwe Newton Discussion > She spells her name in that weird pseudo...

She spells her name in that weird pseudo-African way


I'm not a fan of it. People in Africa probably make fun of it.

reply

"The name 'Thandie' is a variation of her actual middle name Thandiwe (pronounced tan-DEE-way), which means 'beloved.'."

reply

One of the best movies ever - Besieged - with her (known then as Thandie Newton) and David Thewlis. Filmed in Rome. Bernardo Bertolucci.

reply

It's her real name. A silly typo shortened it at the start of her career and now she's correcting it.

reply

It's a bit dumb to endure a mistake in your name for all those years.

reply

Perhaps. I'm guessing once an actor gets a few early credits they don't want to lose them with a name change? Or maybe Thandie sounded better than Thandiwe 30 years ago.

reply

It still sounds better 30 years later

reply

I doubt it ever was a typo. She likely intentionally shortened her name to avoid people mispronouncing it, the same way a lot of Eastern Europeans shorten/change their last names when they move to the USA. It's incredibly annoying and frustrating when people don't pronounce your name correctly.

reply

On IMDb it says it was originally a mistake and I'm not sure it would have helped with the pronunciation. Originally I wasn't sure if her name started with a hard T or softer Th sound - but maybe that's just me.

reply

That story sounds very fabricated to me. I'm familiar with the name "Thandiwe" (it means "beloved") as well as its shortened form "Thandi." Americans probably incorrectly pronounced it "Tan-dee-wee," which would have gotten on her nerves the same way it grates me when people mispronounce my name. The correct pronunciation is "Tun-dee-weh."

I'm convinced she chose to use the shortened form, the same way someone might choose to be called Beth or Eliza instead of Elizabeth, or Jon instead of Jonathan. She's likely making up the typo story. No one in their right mind lacks the agency to correct the misspelling of their name for decades.

reply

I'm just shocked she thinks she's relevant enough for anyone to truly care. All I think about when I think of her is her wooden reaction to being touched in Crash.

reply

My name is Thandi, I'm South African. Thandi/ Thandie is the shortened version of Thandiwe, Thandeka, and others. Just like Kate is short for Catherine, Kathleen, Katrina, etc. I don't think it was a mistake, as she says, that they forgot the W in her name. I think she used to go by Thandie but now preferres Thandiwe. She's lying for attention. I don't know any Thandi that's ever had a problem being called Thandi and just didn't correct people for 30 years!

P.S. the actual name is pronounced Tun-dee first syllable rhymes with Fun, not with Can. She pronounces her name as Tandy to rhyme with Candy. I bet 10 years from now she'll whine that people mispronounced her name for 40 years!

reply

Hi Tantan! Welcome to the Movie Chat!

reply

She was already called Thandie when she was a child. Like you say, it's a common shortened version of her name. She's just revising history for some attention.

reply

[deleted]

metatron1970? what happened?

reply

Dumbest, most ignorant post I've seen on Moviechat all day and that's really saying something.

reply

Go over to the politics section. It's like nuclear-level ignorant over there..

reply