Maitreyi Ramakrishnan shares hilarious story behind her name change

If you’ve ever had your name butchered at a coffee shop, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan gets it. In face, she’s over it.

The Never Have I Ever breakout star caught up with People magazine ahead of her Pokémon Super Bowl commercial and admitted that ordering coffee has become… strategic.

“One hundred percent story of my life, especially with my first name,” Ramakrishnan, 24, said. “I had a couple of viral tweets when I like first got famous. Just spelling out my name as like, My-Tray-Yee as a pronunciation.”

It doesn’t stop here.

“But then, see my thing is with my last name — I didn't feel like I ever needed to do that. 'Cause my last name is just [said like it’s read]: Ramakrishnan. But then I get a lot of people saying Rama-Chrishtian, like Christianity. And I'm like, there's no ‘T.’ This is yet again, a reading comprehension issue.”

Cue the punchline: “This is why we need to invest in education.” 

These days? She skips the chaos entirely.

“I usually just say my name is Blue at like a coffee shop. I'll just say Blue,” she revealed.

Honestly relatable.

Beyond barista battles, Ramakrishnan says she’s working on something deeper this year: letting go. “My brain doesn't like to know that it's not in control of everything, you know?” she shared.

“So all of this to say… I want to try and embrace the fact that, yeah, not everything is in my control.”

One thing she does control? Her circle.

“I know that I have good people around me… I need people that are real.’

Because as she puts it: “Life is short, it’s a blip. Gotta make it count.”