Not every artist moved into the entertainment industry with the name that was assigned to them by their parents. But many celebrities had to take up a new name to pave their way into stardom. There are a number of celebrities who don’t use their real names and are stuck with their stage names.
Many singers, actors, and models have changed their names or adopted new names to reach new heights in their careers. Some stars were comfortable with their new names while others had their real names still used by their close friends and families. Here are 20 celebrities who changed their names and the different situations that made them take a new name.
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20 Celebrities Who Don’t Use Their Real Names
The Weeknd
The ‘Blinding Lights’ singer was born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. To start a music career, Abel dropped out of school, took his mattress, and “left one weekend and never came home“. Thus Abel became the singer The Weeknd without the ‘e’ as there was already a Canadian band named the weekend.
Brad Pitt
The ‘Fight Club‘ actor is known to us by his shortened middle name. He was born William Bradley Pitt after his father, William Alvin Pitt. He is one of the most famous celebrities who has changed his real name.
Gigi Hadid
The supermodel Gigi Hadid was born Jelena Noura Hadid. It was only her close family that called her by the name Gigi. This name was also what her mother Yolanda was called when younger. When the name Jelena became confused with another girl named Helena as she entered grade school, she started to be called Gigi. And then the name stuck.
Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta adopted her stage name inspired by the 1984 Queen song ‘Radio Ga Ga‘. The name evolved to become Lady Gaga which the pop star uses both in her music and acting careers.
Marilyn Monroe
The ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blonde’ actress Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson. She was baptized with the surname Baker and married into Dougherty. The name Marilyn was given by the 20th Century Fox studio executive as she reminded him of the 1920s Broadway star Marilyn Miller. While the actress chose the last name Monroe from her mother’s side of the family.
Miley Cyrus
The always-smiling singer Destiny Hope Cyrus was called Smiley by her family. This childhood nickname was modified to become her stage name Miley along with her last name Cyrus. It was in 2008 that Destiny Hope legally changed her name to Miley Cyrus.
Cardi B
“My sister’s name is Hennessy. So everyone used to call me Bacardi, and I started calling myself Bacardi,” Cardi B explained the story behind her name on the Jimmy Fallon Show. As Instagram kept rejecting the name Bacardi, the rapper changed it to Cardi B. But none of these is the artist’s birth name. Cardi B was born Belcalis Almanzar.
Emma Stone
The Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone talked about the evolution of her name to W Magazine once. She was named Emily Jean Stone at birth. But there is already an Emily Stone in Hollywood. So the ‘The Amazing Spiderman‘ actress changed her name to Emma Stone which was closer to Emily.
Lana Del Ray
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant turned to Lana Del Ray at the age of 25. She was called Lizzy Grant until then. Today, she is known for her distinctive voice.
Halsey
Named Ashley Frangipane, many fans thought that Halsey was an anagram of her first name. But instead, the Sorry singer was inspired by Halsey Street in Brooklyn. The street had her friend’s house where the artist spend time writing music on the weekends.
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Whoopi Goldberg
Caryn Johnson became Whoopi Goldberg as she at the start of her career would act like a whoopee cushion. She shared the story of how she got her name on ‘The Graham Norton Show’.
Demi Moore
The actress Demi Gene Guynes became Demi Moore after her marriage to musician Freddie Moore at the age of 17. Though the marriage ended after four and a half years, she still kept the name.
Bruno Mars
The Talking to the Moon singer Peter Gene Hernandez was called Bruno from a very young age. This childhood nickname was given to him as a toddler as he looked like wrestler Bruno Sammartino. Early in his career, the singer was asked for Latin or Spanish music due to his last name Hernandez. Thus he dropped the name and adopted Mars.
Natalie Portman
The ‘Black Swan‘ actress was born in Israel and has a traditional Hebrew name, Neta-Lee Hershlag. On migrating to the US in 1984, the family changed their surname to Portman. While Neta-Lee became Natalie.
Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj is the birth name that Nicki Minaj was given. She prefers her name Onika which is what her close friends and family still call her. Her name was changed by one of the early production deals she signed, she said in an interview with The Guardian in 2012.
Helen Mirren
The British actress Ilyena Lydia Mironoff, shortened her first name Ilyena to Helen as she started off her acting career. It was her father who changed the family name from Mironoff to Miirren in the late fifties. Thus the actress became Helen Mirren.
Jamie Foxx
The actor Jamie Foxx has a much cooler, stylish birth name, Eric Marlon Bishop. According to what he said in an interview with David Letterman in 2015, the actor changed his name for more stage time as a stand-up comedian. He thus wanted to have a more unisex name. So he became Jamie Foxx.
Katy Perry
It was for a sense of protection that the singer changed her name from Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson to Katy Perry. “It was me going, ‘OK, I’ve been upset my whole childhood so I’m going to show the world I am something, that I am going to do something and that I am enough. I didn’t want to be Katheryn Hudson. I hated that, it was too scary for me, so I decided to be someone else,” the singer explained to The Guardian in an interview.
Mindy Kaling
With her parents originally from India, Mindy Kaling was named after a Hindu goddess, Vera. Her name, Vera Mindy Chokalingam became Mindy Kaling as she preferred her middle name and also because she started off an acting career.
P!nk
It was Steve Buscemi’s character Mr. Pink in ‘Reservoir Dogs‘ that inspired the singer to take P!nk as her stage name. She even ran into Buscemi in New York before the release of her album. Alecia Beth Moore is her birth name.
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