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Katy Perry
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Real name: Katheryn Hudson
The “California Gurls” singer adopted her mother’s last name to avoid being confused with actress Kate Hudson.
Jamie Foxx
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Real name: Eric Marlon Bishop
In the actor’s early days of standup comedy, he performed under unisex names, including Stacy Brown, Traci Green and Jamie Foxx, in order to get stage time since, during those events, there were not many female comedians who signed up.
“Then I went on stage, I got a standing ovation. Because I was ‘fresh meat,’ where [regular comics] wanted a comedian to die [on stage], the amateur in between all the great ones,” Foxx previously told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” in 2018. “I got a standing ovation, and that’s when Jamie Foxx happened.”
Natalie Portman
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Real name: Neta-Lee Hershlag
Portman is the actress’ grandmother’s maiden name.
Demi Moore
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Real name: Demi Gene Guynes
Some sources claim that the actress’ first name was Demetria at birth, but Moore denies shortening it. Her surname was adopted by her first husband Freddy Moore.
Elton John
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Real name is Reginald Kenneth Dwight
The biopic “Rocketman” suggests that the musician got his stage name from his bandmate Elton Dean and Beatles singer John Lennon.
Meghan Markle
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Real name: Rachel Meghan Markle
The former “Suits” actress didn’t change much of her birth name when choosing her stage name.
Meryl Streep
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Real name: Mary Louise Streep
“At birth I had to be named Mary because my mother’s name was Mary and her mother’s name was Mary and [so on],” Streep told Vanity Fair. “So I was born Mary and Louise was my mother’s best friend. . . Louise Buckman.”
“But I was always called Meryl. My father made that name up and he liked that name,” she said.
Olivia Wilde
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Real name: Olivia Jane Cockburn
The “Don’t Worry Darling” star got “Wilde” from poet and playwright Oscar Wilde during the time she was doing The Importance of Being Earnest.
“I was playing Gwendolen, and I was so in love with it. Oscar Wilde is someone who I respect for so many reasons—a revolutionary, a comedian, and a profound thinker. I had all these reasons,” she told The Observer of the inspiration behind her name change.
Prince Harry
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Real name: Henry Charles Albert David
Harry appears to be the diminutive form of Henry and was once popular in medieval England. According to Metro, monarchs named Henry (including the infamous Henry VIII) were typically called Harry by friends.
Brad Pitt
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Real name: William Bradley Pitt
The “Fight Club” star simply chose to drop “William” and shorten his middle name to “Brad”.
Rihanna
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Real name: Robyn Rihanna Fenty
The “Diamonds” hitmaker dropped her first and last name for her stage name, however she still goes by Robyn with friends and family.
“When I hear ‘Robyn,’ I pay attention,” the singer told Rolling Stone.
Miley Cyrus
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Real name: Destiny Hope Cyrus
When the “Malibu” singer was just a baby she always had a grin on her face so her family called her “smiley.” To honour her childhood nickname she legally changed her name to Miley Ray Cyrus in 2009.
John Legend
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Real name: John Roger Stephens
“Well, it was a nickname that some friends started calling me in the studio, just guys that I was collaborating with,” the musician told Jimmy Fallon of the surname “Legend.”
“The first guy to call me that was J. Ivy. He’s a spoken word artist from Chicago. He just started calling me ‘The Legend’ because he thought I sounded like one of our old school soul legends. And it just caught on with our little group of friends, and then they were like, ‘We should call you John Legend.’”
Winona Ryder
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Real name: Winona Laura Horowitz
When the “Beetlejuice” actress was asked how she’d like her name to appear on the credits of her first role, she suggested “Ryder” should replace her last name as Mitch Ryder’s album was playing in the background.
Mila Kunis
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Real name: Milena Markovna Kunis
When the childhood actress started booking roles at a young age she abbreviated “Milena” and shorten her full birth name.
Mindy Kaling
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Real name: Vera Mindy Chokalingam
The “Mindy Project” star decided to shorten her last name and go by her middle name.
Tina Fey
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Real name: Elizabeth Stamatina Fey
The actress’ stage name is a shortened version of her middle name. However, she used her birth name as a source of inspiration for her “30 Rock” alter ego Liz Lemon.
Sigourney Weaver
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Real name: Susan Alexandra Weaver
The “Avatar” actress changed her first name to “Sigourney”, which was derived from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” character named “Sigourney Howard,” according to IMDB.
Nicolas Cage
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Birth name: Nicolas Kim Coppola
The actor, who is the nephew of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, changed his name after he began to rack up a few film credits under the Coppola name. The change was made shortly after he was cast in the 1982 comedy “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”.
Shay Mitchell
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Birth name: Shannon Ashley Garcia Mitchell
“I love J.Lo, Jennifer Lopez,” Mitchell said during a Facebook Live back in 2017. “And when I was in high school, people would be like, ‘Shay-Lo,’ and then ‘Shay’ kinda stuck. We dropped ‘Lo,’ because no one can be J.Lo.”
Ashton Kutcher
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Real name: Christopher Ashton Kutcher
“My name in fact is not even Ashton — Ashton is my middle name. My first name’s Chris and it always has been,” the “Just Married” star said while accepting the Ultimate Choice honour at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards. “It got changed when I was about 19 and became an actor.”
Nina Dobrev
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Real name: Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva
The “Vampire Diaries” star shortened her Bulgarian birth name.
Emma Stone
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Real name: Emily Jean Stone
“My real name is Emily. But it was taken at SAG,” the actress told W Magazine. “I was 16…. So to ask a 16-year-old to pick a new name is really an interesting process, because I was like, ‘I’m going to be Riley.’ And so my name was Riley Stone for about six months.”
After not responding to the name on set, she “changed it to Emma, because you know, it’s closer to Emily, but most people call me ‘M,’ that know me well.”
Reese Witherspoon
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Real name: Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon
The “Legally blonde” star’s stage name is a combination of her dad’s last name (John Witherspoon) and her mother’s maiden name (Betty Reese).
Tom Cruise
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Real name: Thomas Cruise Mapother IV
The “Top Gun” actor is not the only Tom in his family. He began using his middle name as his Hollywood surname at the request of an agent.
Julianne Moore
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Real name: Julie Anne Smith
Despite not wanting to change her name, the actress was forced to come up with a stage name because her given name was too common in actors’ unions.
“My father’s middle name is Moore; my mother’s name is Anne. So I just slammed the Anne onto the Julie. That way I could use both of their names and not hurt anyone’s feelings,” she told The New York Times.
Vin Diesel
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Real name: Mark Sinclair
The Hollywood action star shortened his mother’s maiden name “Vincent” to create his new first name. As for “Diesel,” the actor once told Conan O’Brien on his late night talk show that it was a nickname his friends would call him because he was always full of energy.
Helen Mirren
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Real name: Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov
The actress’ father changed the family name to Mirren in the Fifties.
Queen Latifah
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Real name: Dana Elaine Owens
“Well my mother raised me to believe that all women are queens and should be treated as such and the name Latifah means ‘delicate, sensitive, kind, nice.’ I always loved the meaning of that name, so I chose this as my rap name, my nickname. And that’s what Queen Latifah means,” the actress explained during an appearance on “The Rachael Ray Show” in 2015.
Mandy Moore
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Real name: Amanda Leigh Moore
The “This Is Us” alum dropped her middle name and used the nickname “Mandy”, derived from her birth name.
Joaquin Phoenix
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Real name: Joaquín Rafael Bottom
The “Joker” star’s parents reportedly ditched the last name “Bottom” back in 1979 and reestablished themselves as the Phoenix family.
Gigi Hadid
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Real name: Jelena Hadid
The model’s stage name was taken from the nickname “Gigi” that her mother gave her.
Shania Twain
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Real name: Eilleen Regina Edwards
“In short, I was born Eilleen Regina Edwards, and then I was adopted and I became Eilleen Regina Twain. Then I became a professional singer and I needed a stage name that sounded a little less like my grandmother’s name, because I’m named after my grandmother, both my grandmothers, Eilleen and Regina,” the country star explained during an episode of her “Home Now Radio” on Apple Music Hits.
“I decided to change it to Shania Twain,” the singer continued. “I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born.”
Lady Gaga
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Real name: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
The “Rain on Me” singer legally changed her name after music producer Rob Fusari’s text message to her accidentally autocorrected Queen’s hit “Radio Ga Ga” to “Lady Gaga,” which is the song Fusari would sing whenever Gaga entered the studio, since her vocals reminded him of the late Freddie Mercury. Gaga reportedly replied, “That’s it.”
Bruno Mars
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Real name: Peter Gene Hernandez
“Bruno is after Bruno Sammartino, who was this big, fat wrestler. I was this chunky little baby, so my dad used to call me that as a nickname,” the musician told Rap Up.
“Mars came up because a lot of girls say I’m out of this world!” he joked of the name that sounds bigger than life.
Alicia Keys
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Real name: Alicia Augello Cook
The “Girl on Fire” singer’s stage surname was inspired by her love of music.
Lana Del Rey
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Real name: Elizabeth Woolridge Grant
The singer settled on Lana Del Rey during a trip to Miami with her sister. She previously told Vogue that, at the time, she realized that she “wanted a name that sounded sort of exotic and reminded me of like the seaside on the Floridian coast.”
Snoop Dogg
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Real name: Calvin Cordozar Broadus
In 2009, the rapper told NBC Chicago: “As a kid born in the [1970s], mom used to put on a TV show called ‘Charlie Brown’. And there was a character on there named Snoopy. And I used to love him to death. And my mama said I started to look like him so much ’cause I watched him all the time, and that’s what they used to name me.”
Drake
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Real name: Aubrey Drake Graham
The rapper dropped his first and last name for his stage name.
Nicki Minaj
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Real name: Onika Tanya Maraj
“One of the first production deals I signed, the guy wanted my name to be Minaj and I fought him tooth and nail,” she told The Guardian of her stage name which is supposedly a shortened version of her birth name.
“But he convinced me. I’ve always hated it,” she admitted.
Calvin Harris
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Real name: Adam Richard Wiles
The Scottish DJ wanted to alter how people perceive him.
“My first single was more of a soul track, and I thought Calvin Harris sounded a bit more racially ambiguous,” he told the ShortList. “I thought people might not know if I was Black or not. After that, I was stuck with it.”
Pink
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Real name: Alecia Beth Moore
During an appearance on “Good Morning America”, the singer explained that there were “lots and lots and lots of reasons” why she went with the stage name Pink but noted it was mainly inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s film “Reservoir Dogs” where Steve Buscemi’s character is given the alias “Mr. Pink.”
Lorde
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Real name: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor
“Ever since I was a little kid, I have been really into royals and aristocracy, so to make ‘Lord’ more feminine, I just put an ‘e’ on the end! Some people think it’s religious, but it’s not,” the New Zealand singer told Interview.
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