Brie Larson
Captain Marvel star Brie Larson was born Brianna Sidonie Desaulniers. When deciding on her professional name she decided to change her surname from the hard to pronounce French last name, to Larson. Her inspiration came from her favorite childhood American Girl doll, Kirsten Larson.
Olivia Wilde
Given that Olivia Wilde’s real surname is Cockburn, it is pretty easy to understand why she changed it. She chose her new stage name after falling in love with the work of Oscar Wilde whilst starring in The Importance of Being Earnest during high school.
Nicki Minaj
Born Onika Tanya Maraj, Nicki Minaj didn’t technically choose her own stage name. In an interview with The Guardian in 2012, Minaj shared that at an early production deal someone pushed for her to change her name to Minaj. Initially she fought the idea, but eventually came around. To this day she prefers those close to her to call her Onika and not Nicki Minaj.
Elton John
It is a pretty well known fact that the name Elton John is not the star’s birth name. Although he did legally change his name in 1972 to Elton Hercules John, the musician was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight. John changed his name as his birth name was associated with too many sad memories.
Nina Dobrev
Actress Nina Dobrev, star of The Vampire Diaries, has a very simple reason for changing her name. Born in Bulgaria, Dobrev was given a traditional Bulgarian name and was named Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva. In a bid to make it easier to market herself to the American audience by shortening her name, and thus Nina Dobrev was born.
Reese Witherspoon
Early on in her career, Legally Blonde’s Reese Witherspoon had her name officially changed. Before she was Reese, she was born Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon. Over time, the star realised that she preferred Reese to Laura and so she switched. Reese was her mother’s maiden name.
David Tennant
At the age of sixteen the then David John Mcdonald had to think of a stage name for himself. The reason for this was that the actors union he wanted to join already had a David Mcdonald.The rules stated that no two actors could be registered under the same name. The name he opted for was David Tennant.
Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx began his stand-up career under his real name of Eric Bishop. His sets went so well that the intimidated competition, and those who controlled the open mic night events started preventing him from performing. In an attempt to trick them, he opted for registering under the unisex name, Jamie Foxx .
Bob Dylan
Before he became better known as Bob Dylan, as a youngster, Robert Allen Zimmerman tried out a number of stage names. Prototype aliases included Elston Gunn and Robert Allen. He settled on Bob Dylan aged eighteen, reasoning that the D in Dylan sounded stronger than Allen. Similarly, Bobby, by which most people called him, would have been muddled with the already famous Bobby Darin.
Michael Keaton
Born Michael Douglas, Michael Keaton had no choice but to change his name. Michael Douglas was already an established name and union rules prevented two actors from sharing a name. Keaton was chosen because he was looking through “K” names and decided it was good enough. Privately, he still goes by Michael Douglas and delights in confusing restaurants when he arrives under a Douglas reservation.
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper was initially created to be the name of the band. However, the audience began to assume that Alice was the name of the lead singer and started referring to him as such. In reality, Cooper’s real name was Vincent Furnier, but when he realised that he was being called Alice more often than Vincent, he legally became Alice Cooper.
Natalie Portman
Israeli actress Natalie Portman began her career under her birth name of Neta-Lee Hershlag. Upon emigrating to the United States, the family changed the Hershlag surname to Portman, which had previously been her grandmother’s maiden name. Neta-Lee became Natalie and she opted to stick with Portman for her public name in an attempt to retain some privacy.
Kit Harington
Although perhaps better recognised by most as his Game of Thrones alter-ego, Jon Snow, Kit Harrington’s birth name is Christopher. A rare, but valid shortening of Christopher, Kit was used so often in the Harington household that the actor swears that he himself didn’t realise his name was technically Christopher until he was eleven.
Lana del Rey
The alter-ego of Lana del Rey was created by Elizabeth Grant when she turned twenty-five. It wasn’t the first name the singer tried out though, releasing work under the monikers Lizzy Grant and May Jailer; she also briefly performed as Sparkle Jump Rope Queen. She settled on Lana del Rey as at the time she was going to Miami and speaking Spanish a lot.
Julianne Moore
Born Julie Anne Smith, Julianne Moore tried to keep her birth name, but was thwarted by union rules. Upon registering with SAG, Moore was told that they already had both a Julie Smith and a Julie Anne Smith on their books. She eventually decided to go with Julianne Moore, which was a blending of her parents’ names – Peter Moore Smith and Anne Smith.
John Legend
Known these days as John Legend, the musician’s real name is actually John Stephens. When pressed as to how he went from Stephens to Legend, the star shared that it began as a nickname. Friends would call him John Legend and it stuck, seamlessly becoming his stage name.
Lorde
Whilst many stars go on to adopt their stage names as their real name, singer Lorde will never go down that path. The name Lorde is strictly for stage use only and she much prefers to be addressed by her actual name, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor.
Mindy Kaling
Comedian Mindy Kaling’s real first name is Vera and was named after an incarnation of a Hindu goddess. Kaling though never took to it, and from a young age her parents began calling her by middle name, Mindy. When she started her acting career she chose to keep that name, and then shortened her last name, Chokalingam, to Kaling.
David Bowie
Before he was a superstar, David Bowie was David Robert Jones. Initially he tried to rebrand himself as Tom Jones, but that name was already taken by another singer, Tom Woodward. In need of a new name, he settled on David Bowie in honor of Jim Bowie, the protagonist of the 1960 movie, The Alamo.
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus was once more famous as her television alter-ego Hannah Montana, but Miley Cyrus is also not the name she was born with. The star’s birth name is Destiny Hope Cyrus. Her sunny disposition as a child meant everyone called her Smiley. When it came time to adopt a stage persona, she dropped the S from her nickname and became Miley.
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra is a long name that doesn’t roll off of the tongue. Meg Ryan, however, is much zingier. The change of name came with a change of life plan, with Ryan taking up the name after dropping out of NYU during her first semester, and was inspired by her maternal grandmother’s maiden name.
Alicia Keys
Alicia Auhello Cook wanted to change her last name to something better suited for the stage. Initially she was keen on the name Alicia Wild, but her mother vetoed it. The singer then started to focus on more music friendly names and settled on the stage name Alicia Keys.
Marilyn Monroe
Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe grew up as Norma Jeane Mortenson, before later marrying James Dougherty. After her marriage ended, she was advised to ditch the surname by a 20th Century Fox executive who believed the pronunciation would cause problems. Monroe was a family name so she took it. As for Marilyn, that was given to her because she reminded him of Broadway star Marilyn Miller.
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff in 1945. During the fifties, her father changed the family’s surname from Mironoff to Mirren. When aged twenty, she decided to embark on an acting career and chose to simplify her first name from Ilyena to Helen.
Rihanna
To the music world, she is Rihanna, to friends and family she remains Robyn. Musically, the Barbadian singer has always gone by her middle name. In recent years she has started a clothing line using her surname, Fenty. In the past, the singer has shared that she gets “numb” hearing Rihanna chanted everywhere she goes, but using the name Robyn will always get her attention.
Portia de Rossi
Portia de Rossi only lasted fifteen years with her birth name of Amanda Rogers when she legally changed it. Living in Australia she wanted something that sounded exotic so went with the Italian de Rossi. Her new forename, Portia, had Shakespearean origins, it being the name of her favorite character in the bard’s The Merchant of Venice.
Lady Gaga
The name Lady Gaga is of course a stage name. More than that, the persona is a brand and global phenomena. Quite whether the talented superstar would have had the same career trajectory had she kept her birth name, Stefani Germanotta, is uncertain. Gaga adopted the monster mother namesake after being inspired by the Queen song Radio Ga Ga.
Calvin Harris
Remember when Taylor Swift gave a shout-out to her then boyfriend Adam, and everyone got confused? Well the Adam to whom she was referring was Adam Wiles, aka Calvin Harris. When asked his reason for taking on a stage name, Harris confirmed that he wanted something more racially ambiguous.
P!nk
Like Lady Gaga, P!nk is pretty obviously a stage name. Born Alecia Beth Moore, the singer took inspiration for her name from a Quentin Taratino movie. A big fan of Reservoir Dogs and the colour pink, Moore became P!nk, named in honor of Steve Buscemi’s character Mr. Pink.
Demi Moore
Although most believe that her first marriage was to Bruce Willis, Demi Moore was married before she was famous. Aged just seventeen, she wed Freddy Moore and the two were together for four-and-a-half years. After the marriage ended she kept his surname for her stage name, transitioning from her birth name of Demetria Guynes to the short and snappy Demi Moore.
Halsey
Although Halsey is an anagram of the singer’s real name Ashley, the origin of her name has a different story. During an interview for Vevo, Halsey explained that her stage name was inspired by a Brooklyn street, Halsey Street, where her friend used to live. That Halsey contains the same letters of her actual name is just a happy coincidence.
Spike Lee
Director Shelton Lee, got his more famous name of Spike Lee from his mother. When he was young, his mother began to call him by the nickname Spike due to her perceiving him as a tough baby. The director never grew out of the name and has continued to be tough, highlighting the voices of the marginalised in all his movies.
Cardi B
Musician Cardi B was born Belcalis Almanzar. Her sister was named Hennessy, like the cognac, and so Cardi B was given the nickname Bacardi like the rum. The name stuck so much that even she started to call herself that, and eventually shortened it to Cardi B.
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg was given her stage name whilst working in theater. Then known as Caryn Johnson, the actress was rather gassy. Speaking on The Graham Norton Show she explained that, “the theaters I was performing in were very small so if you were gassy, you had to walk away farting. People would say I was like a Whoopee cushion.”
Vin Diesel
Before he became synonymous with family, Vin Diesel was known by his birth name Mark Sinclair. He changed his name when he started working at a New York nightclub, believing the name made him sound tougher. Vin came from his mother’s last name Vincent, and Diesel was a name his friends called him.
Lucy Hale
Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale is a real-life Karen. No, not one of those, but a legitimate Karen, having been born Karen Lucille Hale. When trying to break into the industry she decided to use her middle name. Due to concerns she might get jumbled in people’s minds with the similarly named Lucille Ball, she shortened her name to Lucy.
Bruno Mars
Although born Peter Hernandez, singer Bruno Mars has gone by Bruno since he was little. As a toddler he looked like the famous wrestler Bruno Sammartin, and the nickname stuck. He added Mars as a surname, for – in his own words – “a little pizzazz.”
Courtney Love
Born Courtney Michelle Harrison, Hole frontwoman Courtney Love has had a love-hate relationship with her name. After switching to the moniker Courtney Love, the singer shot to superstardom with her marriage to Nirvana front-man Kurt Cobain. In recent years, Courtney has enforced a defined line between Courtney Love and Courtney Michelle, with her stage persona, staying exactly there, on the stage.
Lizzo
It is hard now to think of Lizzo as any name other than that, and yet when she arrived into the world she was given the name Melissa Jefferson. Growing up, friends and family called her Lissa, a shortened version of Melissa, but she changed to Lizzo after hearing the Jay-Z song ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A).’
Katy Perry
Before dominating the music world as one of pop’s biggest stars, Katy Perry originally started her music career as a gospel singer, recording a Christian rock record entitled Katy Hudson after her birth name, Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson. At 17, Hudson moved to Los Angeles to pursue secular music, taking on her mother’s maiden name in the process – and the rest is history.
