--- title: Watch Matthew McConaughey on Jimmy Kimmel VIDEO description: McConaughey doesn't respond to the name "Matt," and for good reason—his mom forbade it, as he explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live. canonical: https://time.com/4648512/matthew-mcconaughey-on-kimmel/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-25T15:49:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:26.473Z og:title: Watch Matthew McConaughey Explain His Aversion to Nicknames og:description: The actor's mom forbade him from going by "Matt"—for a biblical good reason. og:url: https://time.com/4648512/matthew-mcconaughey-on-kimmel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Matthew McConaughey Explain His Aversion to Nicknames twitter:description: The actor's mom forbade him from going by "Matt"—for a biblical good reason. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Matthew McConaughey Explain Why He'll Never Answer to 'Matt'  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 25, 2017 3:49 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 25, 2017 3:49 PM UTC _Gold_ actor [Matthew McConaughey](http://time.com/4432705/matthew-mcconaughey-wild-turkey-ads/?iid=sr-link4) has a biblical explanation for the reason he’s never referred to as the diminutive “Matt,” according to a Tuesday night appearance on [_Jimmy Kimmel Live!_](http://time.com/4644963/donald-trump-jimmy-kimmel-alternative-facts/?iid=sr-link2) “It’s always been Matthew, for good reason,” he told the host, when Kimmel tried to refer to him in the commonly shortened form of his first name. Apparently, it was his mother who insisted that he steer clear of “Matt.” “I was in Kindergarten—my mom was a Kindergarten teacher. My friend John says, ‘Hey Matt, wanna go play on the monkey bars?’ I say, ‘Yeah,’ but halfway to the monkey bars I feel this hand on my shoulder and get slammed to the ground,” McConaughey explained. “I look up, it’s my mother in my face, and she’s like, ‘What are you doing?” His egregious error: he had responded to the name “Matt.” His mother told him: “Don’t you ever answer to Matt again. I named you Matthew from the Bible.” That interaction effectively put the fear of his mother in him, and he hasn’t looked back. Watch Matthew McConaughey on Jimmy Kimmel VIDEO ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4648512/matthew-mcconaughey-on-kimmel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4648512/matthew-mcconaughey-on-kimmel/"},"headline":"Watch Matthew McConaughey Explain Why He'll Never Answer to 'Matt'","datePublished":"2017-01-25T15:49:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:26.473Z","description":"\"I named you Matthew from the Bible.”","url":"https://time.com/4648512/matthew-mcconaughey-on-kimmel/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4648512/matthew-mcconaughey-on-kimmel/","name":"Watch Matthew McConaughey Explain Why He'll Never Answer to 'Matt'"}}]}] ```