‘Game of Thrones’ Star Kit Harington Only Learned His Real Name at Age 11
Kit Harington, best known for playing Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, has shared a surprising childhood story about his own name. The information comes from an interview Harington gave to Interview magazine in 2012, where he explained how he only discovered his real name at the age of 11.
Harington was born Christopher Catesby Harington on December 26, 1986, in Acton, West London. Even though his legal name is Christopher, he has been called Kit since he was a baby. For most of his early life, he assumed Kit was his real name.
That changed when he was 11 years old during a school placement test. He wrote down “Kit Harington” on his paper, not knowing there was anything wrong with it. What happened next caught him completely off guard.
He recalled the moment clearly in the interview. He said, “They looked at me like I was completely stupid, and they said, ‘No, you’re Christopher Harington, I’m afraid.’ It was only then I learned my actual name. That was kind of a bizarre existential crisis for an 11-year-old to have.”
The moment was confusing for him, as he had never been told that Kit was just a nickname. It created an unexpected identity shock at a young age, something most people never experience.
Even after finding out, Harington never changed the name he uses in daily life. He continued to go by Kit in all personal and professional situations. He explained in the same interview, “No one ever calls me Christopher. I only use it when I’m applying for a new passport or something.”
He also made it clear that he strongly identifies with the name Kit. He said, “I felt that’s who I was. I’m not really a Chris.”
Despite the unusual story, Harington went on to build a major acting career under the name Kit Harington. He first trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama before beginning his professional career on stage. His early work included the West End production of War Horse in 2009.
His big break came when he was cast as Jon Snow in HBO’s Game of Thrones. The role turned him into a global star and one of the most recognizable faces on television. He played the character across all eight seasons of the series.
At the height of the show’s success, Harington became one of the highest-paid actors on television, reportedly earning up to 1.1 million dollars per episode in later seasons. His performance made Jon Snow one of the most popular characters in modern TV history.
After Game of Thrones ended, HBO considered continuing his story in a spin-off series focused on Jon Snow. However, the project was later canceled. Harington later explained that it was dropped because the team could not find the right story to tell.
Since then, he has worked across different projects in film, television, and theater. He appeared in the Marvel film Eternals and joined the cast of the HBO series Industry, where he played a wealthy but troubled character named Sir Henry Muck. He has also returned to stage acting in several major theater productions.
Even with a long list of roles, the story of his name remains one of the most unusual facts about him. A childhood misunderstanding about something as simple as a name ended up becoming a memorable part of his personal history.
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