Because it's pronounced "Rafe". You are mistaken.
https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/ralph-fiennes-name-pronunciation-origin-394951-20230201
this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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wow, that is easy to get wrong
This is the answer.
Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw, I am flabbergasted and illustrated, simultaneously at the same place and from a distance at the same time.
Holy shit, I truly thought he had a brother named "Ray." Lol
Ahhh, so the I in RaIph is like the second l in Aluminum, what wiII those crafty brits think up next
Same for composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams. Since the last name starts with a 'f' sound, people think it's 'Ray Fiennes' or 'Ray Vaughan-Williams'. Granted Vaughan-Williams is a very niche example that most people would not have heard of.
I hope I'm not wrong in hyphenating his surname.
Holy shit that site is abysmal, at least on mobile.
The English aristocracy never quite got comfortable with English, the language of the unwashed. So they keep Norman French alive in weird pronunciations of names. The Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family are no different.
Fiennes does seem to come from a posh background, doesn't he?
Then maybe a commoner trained in Shakespeare can and does develop that poshness, the ability to deliver it effortlessly.
Was, for example, Peter O'Toole a noble or a hoodlum? Because there seems to be a bit of both in him at the same time.
But then I take a look at the full Fiennes family name and oof... there's some olde stubbornly blue roots in there, in plain sight. The kind of thing you would spy on the guestlist for the weekly Saxe-Coburg canasta evening.
So is Rafe like the black sheep of his family, because he went prancing off to theater school and the bohemian lifestyle instead of a sturdy and dignified profession, like banking?
For the aristocracy, the people who work “real jobs” are the black sheep. A gentleman is supposed to live off the land (rents) and to otherwise be a mere amateur.
Names in particular are under no obligation to follow established or common spelling or pronunciation patterns. A simple search on the engine of your choosing would've told ya that's the way it is pronounced. It is, of course, unusual. But they're doing it as close to right as they can for Ralph.