Benedict Cumberbatch squirms from fan moniker, talks Cumber-bombing

Benedict Cumberbatch squirms a little bit when he hears the somewhat salty moniker his legion of fans have assigned themselves.

Host Ellen DeGeneres wanted to talk about “Cumberbitches� when “The Imitation Game� star appeared on her show Wednesday for the first time. That and his penchant for photobombing -- but we’ll get to that in a sec.

The English actor’s unique name lends itself to many permutations, but his die-hard female fans proudly go by the name DeGeneres mentioned, or sometimes the cuddlier “Cumberbuddies.�

“It’s kind of like, squeeze a confession out of me to actually say that word because I actually kind of squirm a little bit about it,� he said.

“I definitely didn’t [name them],� he added. “That’s part of my problem. I just went, ‘Ladies, this is wonderful. I’m very flattered, but has this not set feminism back a little bit? Empower yourselves if you’re going to get silly about a guy with maybe a little bit more of a sort of, you know, a high-regard, self-regarding name.’ �

The 38-year-old, who again made headlines for photobombing during Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, explained that DeGeneres’ red carpet team was the reason he Cumber-bombed U2 on the Oscars red carpet last year. He was also a tad tipsy.

“Thanks to your team. You gave me some vodka on the red carpet. If for no other reason I blame that for how high I jumped,� the actor said. (In November, Cumberbatch told Jimmy Fallon he did it because a friend is a huge U2 fan and it was his best opportunity to get a photo with them).

Despite telling a reporter that his photobombing days were over, Cumberbatch still threw himself into a high-profile photo taken during Sunday’s Globes telecast of Meryl Streep with comedian Margaret Cho dressed up as a North Korean member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.

“Meryl Streep and someone from North Korea stood right in front of me for about five minutes trying to take a photograph,� he said. “This is ridiculous; I just jumped up and did it again. Shameless.�

He jokingly backtracked and said it wasn’t really him: “It’s just a cardboard cutout that people carry around.�

DeGeneres also breezed through a few unique baby name suggestions for the future dad, who is expecting a child with fiancee Sophie Hunter. Her picks include Engelbert, Harpsichord, Glockenspiel and Carl.

We still like Cumberbaby.

Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.