Since becoming a major movie star, Benedict Cumberbatch has garnered a legion of loyal fans who have dubbed themselves 'Cumberbitches,' but the 38-year-old actor recently said the silly nickname may be rather belittling towards women.

Benedict Cumberbatch
Cumberbatch doesn't like the nickname for his female fans

While appearing on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' on Wednesday (Jan 14th), the 'Sherlock' actor admitting to hating the name for his female fanbase, and said he wants them to come up with a more "empowering" collective moniker.

"It's like trying to squeeze a confession out of me getting me to actually say that word, because I squirm a little bit about it," he told the host Ellen.

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"I definitely didn't [come up with it]. That's part of my problem with it," he continued. "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!'"

But the British actor's fans insisted that they didn't mean to harm of offend anybody. "They were very sweet. They wrote back and were like: 'Well we didn't mean any harm to feminism! We're just having a little bit of fun with your name,'" Cumberbatch said.

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On Thursday (Jan 15th), Cumberbatch received his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in 'The Intimidation Game,' in which he portrays gay mathematician Alan Turing, who was responsible for breaking the Enigma code used by the Nazis during World War II, only to be later condemned and sent to prison for his sexuality.