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And the Oscar goes to — wait, why is it called an Oscar?
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Summary
Bruce Davis got that question all the time — in letters and emails from the curious public — during his two-decade tenure as the Academy's executive director, which ended in 2011. "And what astonished me was that when I would ask around the building, everybody would say, 'Well, we don't exactly know,'" he told NPR. "And so I didn't do anything about it myself until I was retiring." Oscars 2026 Your guide to Oscar-nominated movies and where to watch them Davis decided to use his newfound free time to compile a history of the institution, ultimately publishing The Academy and the Award in 2022. Davis recounts the apocryphal legend this way: Skolsky was running up against deadline on his awards-night rough draft when he was stopped by the word "statuette." "He thought it sounded awfully snobby and he didn't know how to spell it," he said. "And he asked a couple of people around in the hall, and I guess no one was helping him spell statuette." Movies 5 most unexpected moments in Oscars' history Skolsky later said he thought back to a vaudeville routine where the master of ceremonies would tease an orchestra member by asking, "Oscar, will you have a cigar?" And he claimed he decided to poke fun at the ceremony's pretentiousness by referring to the statuettes as Oscars instead. She had long claimed, including in her 1962 biography, that she coined the Oscar's nickname while accepting her first Academy Award some three decades earlier. "Her story was that she was holding [it] in her hands and just kind of waiting for the ceremonies to move along, and she started looking at the hindquarters of the statuette and she said … the hindquarters of the statuette were the very image of her husband," Davis explained. Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images While Davis takes some personal satisfaction in the outcome of his quest, he accepts that the mystery of the Oscar nickname may never be solved conclusively. "If I had come up empty, I wouldn't be arguing that we need to change the name," he said. "But it's interesting that it became such a tradition.
## Summary
Bruce Davis got that question all the time — in letters and emails from the curious public — during his two-decade tenure as the Academy's executive director, which ended in 2011. "And what astonished me was that when I would ask around the building, everybody would say, 'Well, we don't exactly know,'" he told NPR. "And so I didn't do anything about it myself until I was retiring." Oscars 2026 Your guide to Oscar-nominated movies and where to watch them Davis decided to use his newfound free time to compile a history of the institution, ultimately publishing The Academy and the Award in 2022. Davis recounts the apocryphal legend this way: Skolsky was running up against deadline on his awards-night rough draft when he was stopped by the word "statuette." "He thought it sounded awfully snobby and he didn't know how to spell it," he said. "And he asked a couple of people around in the hall, and I guess no one was helping him spell statuette." Movies 5 most unexpected moments in Oscars' history Skolsky later said he thought back to a vaudeville routine where the master of ceremonies would tease an orchestra member by asking, "Oscar, will you have a cigar?" And he claimed he decided to poke fun at the ceremony's pretentiousness by referring to the statuettes as Oscars instead. She had long claimed, including in her 1962 biography, that she coined the Oscar's nickname while accepting her first Academy Award some three decades earlier. "Her story was that she was holding [it] in her hands and just kind of waiting for the ceremonies to move along, and she started looking at the hindquarters of the statuette and she said … the hindquarters of the statuette were the very image of her husband," Davis explained. Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images While Davis takes some personal satisfaction in the outcome of his quest, he accepts that the mystery of the Oscar nickname may never be solved conclusively. "If I had come up empty, I wouldn't be arguing that we need to change the name," he said. "But it's interesting that it became such a tradition.
## Article Content
And the Oscar goes to — wait, why is it called an Oscar?
March 13, 2026
2:06 PM ET
By
Rachel Treisman
An Oscar statue appears outside the Dolby Theatre ahead of the 2015 ceremony. But who is he really?
Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
Sunday is the
98th Academy Awards
, where many of Hollywood's top talents will walk the red carpet before settling in for a night of triumphs, heartbreaks and abruptly cut-off acceptance speeches.
Most of us just refer to the ceremony as "the Oscars," the longstanding nickname of the gold-plated statuettes that winners in each category take home.
Cedric Gibbons, the art director of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is credited with designing the iconic statue ahead of the first annual awards banquet of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka "the Academy") in 1929.
Oscars 2026
Marty Crunchwrap Supreme and more menu ideas for your 2026 Oscars party
He dreamed up the knight (possibly
modeled on a Mexican actor
of the era) standing on a reel of film, holding a crusader's sword to defend the industry from outside criticism
.
And Los Angeles-based sculptor George Stanley made the statuette a reality, one that stands 13 1/2 inches tall and weighs 8 1/2 pounds.
Its full legal name is the "Academy Award of Merit." The Academy officially adopted its nickname, Oscar, in 1939.
But where did it come from?
Bruce Davis got that question all the time — in letters and emails from the curious public — during his two-decade tenure as the Academy's executive director, which ended in 2011.
"And what astonished me was that when I would ask around the building, everybody would say, 'Well, we don't exactly know,'" he told NPR. "And so I didn't do anything about it myself until I was retiring."
Oscars 2026
Your guide to Oscar-nominated movies and where to watch them
Davis decided to use his newfound free time to compile a history of the institution, ultimately publishing
The Academy and the Award
in 2022. One of the questions it explores is the origin of the Oscar nickname.
"As it turned out, that was not an easy thing to find out," Davis said. "It took a lot of running around and doing some actual research, and I did finally come up with something that I'm reasonably confident is the right answer."
There are three enduring — and competing — myths about where the name came from. Davis debunked them all and proposed a fourth.
Workers set up an Oscar statue in the red carpet area before the 2025 Oscar awards.
Jae C. Hong/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Jae C. Hong/AP
The debunked claims
"Oscar" made its
first mainstream newspaper appearance
as shorthand for an Academy Award in March 1934, when entertainment journalist Sidney Skolsky used it in his Hollywood gossip column.
Davis recounts the apocryphal legend this way: Skolsky was running up against deadline on his awards-night rough draft when he was stopped by the word "statuette."
"He thought it sounded awfully snobby and he didn't know how to spell it," he said. "And he asked a couple of people around in the hall, and I guess no one was helping him spell statuette."
Movies
5 most unexpected moments in Oscars' history
Skolsky later said he thought back to a vaudeville routine where the master of ceremonies would tease an orchestra member by asking, "Oscar, will you have a cigar?" And he claimed he decided to poke fun at the ceremony's pretentiousness by referring to the statuettes as Oscars instead.
Davis sees a few holes in this story, namely that the term appeared in at least one industry publication months before Skolsky's column. But it's not a total loss for Skolsky, who is separately
credited
with coining or at least popularizing the term "beefcake."
Bette Davis and her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr., pictured in Hollywood in 1940. She claimed in her autobiography that she jokingly named the statuette after him, but later admitted she hadn't coined the term.
General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive
hide caption
toggle caption
General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive
The most famous version of events involves none other than legendary actress Bette Davis. She had long claimed, including in her 1962 biography, that she coined the Oscar's nickname while accepting her first Academy Award some three decades earlier.
"Her story was that she was holding [it] in her hands and just kind of waiting for the ceremonies to move along, and she started looking at the hindquarters of the statuette and she said … the hindquarters of the statuette were the very image of her husband," Davis explained.
Oscars 2026
At last, an Oscar for the people who decide who gets to star
But Davis' husband at the time, musician Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr., was primarily known by another nickname, "Ham." And mentions of "Oscar" appeared in print years before Davis won her first one, in 1936. Davis eventually
retracted the claim
in her 1974 book, telling her biographer: "A sillier controversy never existed."
"I don't feel my fame
---
## Expert Analysis
### Merits
N/A
### Areas for Consideration
- Oscars 2026 Marty Crunchwrap Supreme and more menu ideas for your 2026 Oscars party He dreamed up the knight (possibly modeled on a Mexican actor of the era) standing on a reel of film, holding a crusader's sword to defend the industry from outside criticism .
- Davis eventually retracted the claim in her 1974 book, telling her biographer: "A sillier controversy never existed." "I don't feel my fame and fortune came from naming Oscar 'Oscar,'" she said, according to USA Today . "I relinquish once and for all any claim." The more-likely suspects Perhaps a more likely source is Margaret Herrick , the Academy's mid-20th century librarian-turned-executive director.
### Implications
- Matt Sayles/Invision/AP hide caption toggle caption Matt Sayles/Invision/AP Sunday is the 98th Academy Awards , where many of Hollywood's top talents will walk the red carpet before settling in for a night of triumphs, heartbreaks and abruptly cut-off acceptance speeches.
- Davis recounts the apocryphal legend this way: Skolsky was running up against deadline on his awards-night rough draft when he was stopped by the word "statuette." "He thought it sounded awfully snobby and he didn't know how to spell it," he said. "And he asked a couple of people around in the hall, and I guess no one was helping him spell statuette." Movies 5 most unexpected moments in Oscars' history Skolsky later said he thought back to a vaudeville routine where the master of ceremonies would tease an orchestra member by asking, "Oscar, will you have a cigar?" And he claimed he decided to poke fun at the ceremony's pretentiousness by referring to the statuettes as Oscars instead.
- Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images While Davis takes some personal satisfaction in the outcome of his quest, he accepts that the mystery of the Oscar nickname may never be solved conclusively. "If I had come up empty, I wouldn't be arguing that we need to change the name," he said. "But it's interesting that it became such a tradition.
### Expert Commentary
This article covers oscar, academy, davis topics. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1670.
Bruce Davis got that question all the time — in letters and emails from the curious public — during his two-decade tenure as the Academy's executive director, which ended in 2011. "And what astonished me was that when I would ask around the building, everybody would say, 'Well, we don't exactly know,'" he told NPR. "And so I didn't do anything about it myself until I was retiring." Oscars 2026 Your guide to Oscar-nominated movies and where to watch them Davis decided to use his newfound free time to compile a history of the institution, ultimately publishing The Academy and the Award in 2022. Davis recounts the apocryphal legend this way: Skolsky was running up against deadline on his awards-night rough draft when he was stopped by the word "statuette." "He thought it sounded awfully snobby and he didn't know how to spell it," he said. "And he asked a couple of people around in the hall, and I guess no one was helping him spell statuette." Movies 5 most unexpected moments in Oscars' history Skolsky later said he thought back to a vaudeville routine where the master of ceremonies would tease an orchestra member by asking, "Oscar, will you have a cigar?" And he claimed he decided to poke fun at the ceremony's pretentiousness by referring to the statuettes as Oscars instead. She had long claimed, including in her 1962 biography, that she coined the Oscar's nickname while accepting her first Academy Award some three decades earlier. "Her story was that she was holding [it] in her hands and just kind of waiting for the ceremonies to move along, and she started looking at the hindquarters of the statuette and she said … the hindquarters of the statuette were the very image of her husband," Davis explained. Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images While Davis takes some personal satisfaction in the outcome of his quest, he accepts that the mystery of the Oscar nickname may never be solved conclusively. "If I had come up empty, I wouldn't be arguing that we need to change the name," he said. "But it's interesting that it became such a tradition.
## Article Content
And the Oscar goes to — wait, why is it called an Oscar?
March 13, 2026
2:06 PM ET
By
Rachel Treisman
An Oscar statue appears outside the Dolby Theatre ahead of the 2015 ceremony. But who is he really?
Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
Sunday is the
98th Academy Awards
, where many of Hollywood's top talents will walk the red carpet before settling in for a night of triumphs, heartbreaks and abruptly cut-off acceptance speeches.
Most of us just refer to the ceremony as "the Oscars," the longstanding nickname of the gold-plated statuettes that winners in each category take home.
Cedric Gibbons, the art director of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is credited with designing the iconic statue ahead of the first annual awards banquet of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka "the Academy") in 1929.
Oscars 2026
Marty Crunchwrap Supreme and more menu ideas for your 2026 Oscars party
He dreamed up the knight (possibly
modeled on a Mexican actor
of the era) standing on a reel of film, holding a crusader's sword to defend the industry from outside criticism
.
And Los Angeles-based sculptor George Stanley made the statuette a reality, one that stands 13 1/2 inches tall and weighs 8 1/2 pounds.
Its full legal name is the "Academy Award of Merit." The Academy officially adopted its nickname, Oscar, in 1939.
But where did it come from?
Bruce Davis got that question all the time — in letters and emails from the curious public — during his two-decade tenure as the Academy's executive director, which ended in 2011.
"And what astonished me was that when I would ask around the building, everybody would say, 'Well, we don't exactly know,'" he told NPR. "And so I didn't do anything about it myself until I was retiring."
Oscars 2026
Your guide to Oscar-nominated movies and where to watch them
Davis decided to use his newfound free time to compile a history of the institution, ultimately publishing
The Academy and the Award
in 2022. One of the questions it explores is the origin of the Oscar nickname.
"As it turned out, that was not an easy thing to find out," Davis said. "It took a lot of running around and doing some actual research, and I did finally come up with something that I'm reasonably confident is the right answer."
There are three enduring — and competing — myths about where the name came from. Davis debunked them all and proposed a fourth.
Workers set up an Oscar statue in the red carpet area before the 2025 Oscar awards.
Jae C. Hong/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Jae C. Hong/AP
The debunked claims
"Oscar" made its
first mainstream newspaper appearance
as shorthand for an Academy Award in March 1934, when entertainment journalist Sidney Skolsky used it in his Hollywood gossip column.
Davis recounts the apocryphal legend this way: Skolsky was running up against deadline on his awards-night rough draft when he was stopped by the word "statuette."
"He thought it sounded awfully snobby and he didn't know how to spell it," he said. "And he asked a couple of people around in the hall, and I guess no one was helping him spell statuette."
Movies
5 most unexpected moments in Oscars' history
Skolsky later said he thought back to a vaudeville routine where the master of ceremonies would tease an orchestra member by asking, "Oscar, will you have a cigar?" And he claimed he decided to poke fun at the ceremony's pretentiousness by referring to the statuettes as Oscars instead.
Davis sees a few holes in this story, namely that the term appeared in at least one industry publication months before Skolsky's column. But it's not a total loss for Skolsky, who is separately
credited
with coining or at least popularizing the term "beefcake."
Bette Davis and her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr., pictured in Hollywood in 1940. She claimed in her autobiography that she jokingly named the statuette after him, but later admitted she hadn't coined the term.
General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive
hide caption
toggle caption
General Photographic Agency/Hulton Archive
The most famous version of events involves none other than legendary actress Bette Davis. She had long claimed, including in her 1962 biography, that she coined the Oscar's nickname while accepting her first Academy Award some three decades earlier.
"Her story was that she was holding [it] in her hands and just kind of waiting for the ceremonies to move along, and she started looking at the hindquarters of the statuette and she said … the hindquarters of the statuette were the very image of her husband," Davis explained.
Oscars 2026
At last, an Oscar for the people who decide who gets to star
But Davis' husband at the time, musician Harmon Oscar Nelson Jr., was primarily known by another nickname, "Ham." And mentions of "Oscar" appeared in print years before Davis won her first one, in 1936. Davis eventually
retracted the claim
in her 1974 book, telling her biographer: "A sillier controversy never existed."
"I don't feel my fame
---
## Expert Analysis
### Merits
N/A
### Areas for Consideration
- Oscars 2026 Marty Crunchwrap Supreme and more menu ideas for your 2026 Oscars party He dreamed up the knight (possibly modeled on a Mexican actor of the era) standing on a reel of film, holding a crusader's sword to defend the industry from outside criticism .
- Davis eventually retracted the claim in her 1974 book, telling her biographer: "A sillier controversy never existed." "I don't feel my fame and fortune came from naming Oscar 'Oscar,'" she said, according to USA Today . "I relinquish once and for all any claim." The more-likely suspects Perhaps a more likely source is Margaret Herrick , the Academy's mid-20th century librarian-turned-executive director.
### Implications
- Matt Sayles/Invision/AP hide caption toggle caption Matt Sayles/Invision/AP Sunday is the 98th Academy Awards , where many of Hollywood's top talents will walk the red carpet before settling in for a night of triumphs, heartbreaks and abruptly cut-off acceptance speeches.
- Davis recounts the apocryphal legend this way: Skolsky was running up against deadline on his awards-night rough draft when he was stopped by the word "statuette." "He thought it sounded awfully snobby and he didn't know how to spell it," he said. "And he asked a couple of people around in the hall, and I guess no one was helping him spell statuette." Movies 5 most unexpected moments in Oscars' history Skolsky later said he thought back to a vaudeville routine where the master of ceremonies would tease an orchestra member by asking, "Oscar, will you have a cigar?" And he claimed he decided to poke fun at the ceremony's pretentiousness by referring to the statuettes as Oscars instead.
- Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images While Davis takes some personal satisfaction in the outcome of his quest, he accepts that the mystery of the Oscar nickname may never be solved conclusively. "If I had come up empty, I wouldn't be arguing that we need to change the name," he said. "But it's interesting that it became such a tradition.
### Expert Commentary
This article covers oscar, academy, davis topics. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1670.
oscar
academy
davis
awards
caption
oscars
award
nickname