Hilarious Reason Why TBBT's Penny Never Had a Last Name (and Never Will)
Penny is one of the main characters on The Big Bang Theory. Is she not important enough to have a last name?
The show revealed all of the other characters' full names early on – for instance, we know that Johnny Galecki portrayed Penny's husband, Leonard Leakey Hofstadter.
Why didn't the creators extend the same courtesy to Kaley Cuoco 's character?
We've met Penny's relatives over the seasons (except for her sister who was mentioned, but then erased from existence), and yet her last name has remained a mystery.
Fans have been waiting for the big reveal since season 1 and continued to hope for the better even after The Big Bang Theory ended.
There are two popular theories about Penny's last name. Fans once thought that she was a Barrington as series' creator Chuck Lorre once hinted at this possibility in an old interview, but he never confirmed it on screen.
Then season 2 rolled around, and in one of the episodes, Penny got a letter with "Penny Teller" inscribed on the envelope.
Still, both Kaley Cuoco and Chuck Lorre have confirmed that it's not Penny's canonical last name, and that it was a mere mistake on the prop department's part (as stated in The Big Bang Theory oral history book).
In fact, this mystery has been intentional all along. Showrunner Steve Molaro is convinced that Penny's last name has been kept a secret for so long that the creators of the show are now too "nervous and superstitious" to reveal it (according to The Hollywood Reporter).
The years have passed by, and whatever maiden name Penny could have in theory would never live up to the expectations that fans have had all this time.
Molaro also added that Penny would "always be a Hofstadter" (since she married Leonard in season 9). That is, however, a highly problematic statement that only adds to the conversation about a woman's identity with or without a husband.
A person's last name is part of their identity, and not giving Penny a maiden name definitely sends out the wrong message (albeit it probably wasn't conceived like that).
Kaley Cuoco herself has changed her narrative a couple of times. In a 2017 interview for CBS, she said that Penny's last name was "a personal thing" and that she didn't want to find it out.
In 2018, Cuoco admitted that she would like to know Penny's maiden name after all (according to E! News), before changing her mind again in 2019.
As TVLine reported, the actress shared that she loved the fact that no one would ever figure out Penny's last name (and so do we).
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, CBS, E! News, TVLine