How Leonardo DiCaprio got his name

Few can say they were named in front of great art

(Franco Origlia/Getty)

Leonardo DiCaprio is a grand name very befitting of a Hollywood star, and the story behind how he got it is quite charming.

He shared the anecdote in an interview with NPR in 2014:

'My father tells me that they were on their honeymoon at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, I believe. They were looking at a da Vinci painting, and allegedly I started kicking furiously while my mother was pregnant. And my father took that as a sign, and I suppose DiCaprio wasn't that far from da Vinci. And so, my dad, being the artist that he is, said, "That's our boy's name."'

As for his surname, DiCaprio’s father, George DiCaprio, is a half-Italian comic book artist and distributor, though most of DiCaprio’s immediate ancestry is German (his middle name is Wilhelm) and Russian, with the actor having previously described himself as “half-Russian”.

Earlier in the week, DiCaprio expressed a desire to play several Russian historical figures.

"Putin would be very, very, very interesting. I would like to play him," he told German publication Die Welt.

"I think there should be more films about Russian history because it has many stories worthy of Shakespeare. That is fascinating for an actor,” he enthused, “Lenin also would be an interesting role. I would like also to star as Rasputin.”