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Ben Affleck’s middle name has become a hot topic of conversation amongst fans after the actor got married to Jennifer Lopez in Las Vegas. Fans are discussing every detail of the couple and their wedding, including whether or not J. Lo legally changed her last name and the meaningful story behind Ben Affleck’s middle name. Here’s what we know about the actor’s name and what fans are saying about it. 

Ben Affleck, whose middle name is Geza, smiles at an event.
Ben Affleck | Marilla Sicilia/Getty Images

Ben Affleck’s middle name is causing a stir following his wedding with Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s relationship has created quite a stir since they rekindled their romance nearly two decades after breaking off their engagement in 2004. 

The famous couple recently got married in a small ceremony in Las Vegas. Lopez shared the news on her website, OnTheJLo. She posted plenty of photos and details about the wedding, summing it up by writing, “We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”

Affleck and Lopez’s wedding has brought up a lot of name-related drama surrounding the couple. The Jersey Girl star legally changed her name to Jennifer Affleck, sparking a wave of new nicknames like “J. Fleck” and “J.Flo.”

Fans have also been pointing out that the “Dance Again” singer isn’t the first person to have the moniker Jennifer Affleck. Ben’s ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, also changed her name to Jennifer Affleck while married to the Gone Girl star

But after seeing photos of the couple’s application for a marriage license, fans are also talking about the Good Will Hunting star’s name – specifically, Ben Affleck’s middle name, which is Géza. 

Ben Affleck’s middle name, Géza, honors a Holocaust survivor 

Amid all the gossip and excitement surrounding Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s wedding, many fans can’t believe they are learning the actor’s middle name for the first time, even though he has been in the spotlight for decades.

According to HITC, Géza is originally a Hungarian name that means “little prince.” But Affleck once explained during a speech for the Writers Guild of America that his middle name holds another special meaning. He also revealed that he wasn’t very fond of the moniker as a child. 

“My parents named me after a Hungarian friend of theirs named Géza,” Affleck said (via The Daily Beast). “When I got to be in the fourth or fifth grade I threw a huge fit and I was like, ‘You are the worst namer of people in the world!’”

He explained that Géza was the name of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor his mother knew. “My mom told me that Géza was a friend of hers who died around the time I was born,” Affleck said. “He was a Holocaust survivor from Hungary and he was the most exceptional person she knew. He had leapt from a train during the Holocaust taking Jews to the death camps, and he went back to save several other people to try to break them out.”

Affleck continued, “She told me six million Jews were murdered and that men like him, brave and selfless, were what stood between us and the evil that people were capable of doing to one another. That name has never been anything short of a tremendous honor to me since that day. I came to understand and better identify with the suffering of others.”

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What fans are saying about the actor

While fans are gushing over Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s wedding, they can’t get over the actor’s middle name. 

“My takeaway from this is that Ben Affleck’s middle name is Geza,” one fan tweeted after news of the marriage broke. 

“So the Bennifer news is huge but also like Ben Affleck’s middle name being Geza got me,” another fan wrote on Twitter.

And another fan tweeted, “Lotta focus on ben affleck and jlo getting married and not on the fact that ben afflecks middle name is ‘geza.’”