Keira Knightley has admitted that her name is actually a typo caused by her mum’s rubbish spelling.

The Imitation Game star told Elle magazine that her dad had envisaged his daughter’s name being spelled differently, but had sent her mum to register it which had led to the error.

She revealed: “I was meant to be named ‘Kiera’, after a Russian ice skater who was on the TV one day. My dad fancied her and nicked her name for me.

Keira Knightley
(Anthony Devlin/PA)

“But it was my mum who went to register my birth, and she accidentally spelled ‘ei’ instead of ‘ie’ because my mum’s c**p at spelling. Apparently, when she came back, he said: ‘What the f***? You’ve spelt her name wrong!’

“What were they going to do, though? Once it’s on the piece of paper, it’s on the piece of paper. And that’s me. A spelling error.”

Keira also talked about her hatred of style rules and fashion trends: “Break the rules. I’ve always hated the idea that you should be wearing this or that, because it makes me feel like I’m getting everything wrong. I hated it at school, and I don’t want it as an adult.

Keira Knightley
(Ian West/PA)

“If you want to wear a f***ing flowerpot on your head and that makes you happy, then wear a f***ing flowerpot on your head.”

At the weekend’s Screen Actors Guild awards, the pregnant star said of her maternity style: “It just means that you’re not going to wear anything tight for me. Actually, people do wear tight things when they’re pregnant, don’t they? I don’t want to, so it’s just all quite loose. I’m quite comfortable.

“The shoes are quite high, they may come off later. I can go, ‘Well, I’m pregnant so my shoes have to come off,’ and no one can say anything.”