During an interview with KISS 92.5 in 2012, Estelle Harris spoke at length about her time on “Seinfeld” and revealed several interesting tidbits. Perhaps one of the most interesting factoids that she talked about, however, came down to her character name sharing the same name as her. The interviewer was curious if this was done so she wouldn’t forget her character name, but according to Harris, it was one big coincidence.
“They named her Estelle before they cast her,” Harris said. “So when I came to audition and they said, ‘What’s your name?’ I said ‘Estelle Harris.’ And they all looked at each other, ‘Yeah, like my name is Pinocchio.’ But they found out that my name was Estelle Harris and that was a coinkydink-y.”
This revelation doesn’t seem outside the realm of believability. After all, when it came to main cast members, the only one who actually portrayed any version of themself was Jerry Seinfeld himself. Everyone else was given fictional names. So discovering that Estelle’s name choice boils down to nothing more than fun little happenstance tracks with Seinfeld really remaining the only character rooted in some kind of connection to the real world, even if it’s a fictional version of that reality. Whatever the reasons behind her name, Estelle is definitely one of the more memorable side characters for “Seinfeld,” and the late Harris was a big part of why.
