Chris Pratt has had a pretty remarkable career. He first became a household name as part of the Parks & Recreation cast, before becoming one of the most bankable movie stars with major franchise roles in The LEGO Movie, Jurassic World films, and as Star-Lord in the MCU (the latter of which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription). It turns out that he considered going by a wild one-word name in Hollywood. Like Zendaya, but so much sillier.
While fans are hoping that Chris Pratt will return as Peter Quill in upcoming Marvel movies, he’s stayed busy with notable roles in Mercy and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (which is streaming with a Peacock subscription). In a video from The Tonight Show‘s YouTube, Pratt told host Jimmy Fallon about the origin of his scrapped actor name “Christo.” In his words:
The backstory is I was discovered at a restaurant in Maui called the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. A director came in, I was waiting tables and gave me an audition, and that changed my life. And I had a name tag that I had written Christopher on. And there’s only like a middle part where it doesn’t rub off and the Sharpie on the outside rubbed off. And over time it just said Christo.
Honestly, this is pretty charming. Lots of folks who have worn name tags have funny stories about wearing the wrong one, or even having one’s name messed up on it. It sounds like the “pher” on his Bubba Gump tag was missing, which led to folks calling him simply Christo.
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So why did he think this would be a good professional name? In the same appearance, the 47-year-old actor went on to share how it sort of happened by accident, saying:
And so at Bubba Gump, everyone thought my name was Christo. And so everyone called me Christo. ‘Hey, Christo, Christo.’ And I was like, ‘That’s kind of fire. I think I’m gonna go with a mono-name like Madonna or something.’
There have been a number of truly iconic single-name celebrities over the years. Pratt named Madonna but there’s also Cher, Zendaya, Rihanna, Adele, and more. That being said, “Christo” sounds pretty goofy, and I have to assume it wouldn’t have serviced his career. Besides, fans like to debate which Hollywood Chris is the best, with Pratt competing against Hemsworth, Evans and Pine. To think, he might have been the only Christo…
It turns out that the Guardians of the Galaxy icon earnestly thought about going by “Christo” during his early days auditioning for acting gigs. He affirmed this to Fallon by saying:
I really considered it.
I have to wonder how casting agents might have reacted to Pratt walking into auditions using such a wild one-word name to represent himself. In the end he decided against it, which was likely the right move. I mean, look at how wildly successful he’s been using his given name.
As previously mentioned, fan who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order are hoping that Pratt will return as Star-Lord soon, especially since Guardians 3's ending confirmed he would be back... eventually. He's got no more projects coming out on the 2026 movie release list, unless he surprisingly pops up in Avengers: Doomsday. If he does, he'll be Chris Pratt instead of just Christo.