Celebrities often craft their public image carefully, and sometimes that includes choosing a stage name that they believe better represents their brand or persona. From iconic stars of the past to today’s rising talents, many celebrities have opted to change their names for various reasons. The following is a list of 19 celebrities who many fans didn’t realize, were born with a different name.
Lana Del Ray
Lana Del Ray is her stage name, which she must have felt was more appealing than her actual name Elizabeth Grant. Del Ray changed her name in 2011, saying in an interview that she chose a name that she could shape her music towards.
Reese Witherspoon
Reese is actually her second middle name. Her first name is Laura. It’s unclear when Witherspoon changed her name, but she appeared as Reese Witherspoon at age 14 in her film debut “The Man in the Moon.”
Marilyn Monroe
Norma Jean Mortensen began using her stage name, Marilyn Monroe in 1946. A 20th-Century Fox executive pitched the name Marilyn and Monroe was her mother’s maiden name.
Audrey Hepburn
Hepburn’s name comes with a complex history. She was born with the name Audrey Kathleen Ruston in 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. However, her mother temporarily changed her name to Edda Kathleen van Heemstra out of fear that her British heritage would become obvious. In 1940, her father changed the family surname to Hepburn when the Germans occupied Belgium.
Rihanna
Robyn Fenty is the singer’s real name. However she chose her stage name to be Rihanna which was her middle name.
Miley Cyrus
Cyrus’s original name was Destiny Hope. After being called “Smiley” most of her childhood, she decided to change her name officially to just Miley. Her middle name Ray is after her grandfather, politician Ronald Ray Cyrus.
Demi Moore
Demetria Guynes began using her first husband’s last name Moore as her stage name in 1981. She kept that surname despite divorcing Moore in 1984.
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook could have been Alicia Wild if not for her mother’s guidance. Keys went through the dictionary trying to find a stage name. Eventually her manager suggested the last name ‘Keys.’ Since she was a piano player, the surname immediately appealed to her.
Tina Fey
Although Fey’s first name is actually Elizabeth, even since childhood she went by the name Tina, a short form of her middle name of Greek heritage Stamatina. Although she dropped her first name early on, she used her first name as inspiration for her character in the hit television show 30 Rock, Liz Lemon.
Katy Perry
Katy Perry’s original name was Kate Hudson. But there was already a famous ‘Kate Hudson’ in the industry who also happened to be her friend. She opted to go by Katy rather than Katheryn and took her mother’s maiden name Perry as her new surname.
John Legend
John Roger Stephens got the nickname ‘legend’ soon after he started his career when people he worked with thought he sounded like one of the old school soul legends. The name caught on, and with support from Kanye West, he decided to take on the stage name John Legend.
Rooney Mara
Mara was originally named Patricia Rooney Mara and everyone called her Tricia. Mara once said in an interview that the name Tricia never felt right to her though. So when her acting career took off, she had no issues with using her middle name as her stage name instead.
Jon Stewart
Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz legally changed his last name to Stewart in 2001. Stewart said that he didn’t change his last name to hide his ethnic identity. He did it because he was estranged from his father and didn’t wish to carry his name any longer.
Shania Twain
Eilleen Regina Edwards was signed to a record label in 1993. She was encouraged to adopt a name with better stage presence, so she chose the name Shania. The name in Ojibwa means “on my way” and also honors her father’s Ojibwa heritage. Twain was also her step-father’s surname.
Ricky Martin
Born Enrique Martin Morales, Martin simply took his nickname and middle name and created the perfect stage name for himself.
Iggy Azalea
Amethyst Amelia Kelly sounds like a lovely name. But the rap artist decided to take the name of her beloved dog Iggy and the name of the street her mother lives on, Azalea, as her stage surname.
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has a story similar to Jon Stewart’s. Cruise’s father was abusive and he eventually decided to drop his father’s surname Mapother when he started his acting career.
Elton John
Reginald Kenneth Dwight legally changed his name to Elton Hercules John in 1972. His was chose in honor of two members of the band Bluesology, saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry.
Jamie Foxx
Changing his name from Eric Marlon Bishop to Jamie Foxx was a move that may have propelled his career. The comedian and actor said that changing to a gender-neutral name helped him land more gigs and get called on stage at comedy clubs earlier in the night. He went with the last name Foxx in honor of his favorite stand-up comedian Redd Foxx (also known as John Elroy Sanford.)
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