Yahoo Lifestyle 24 Famous People Who Shortened Or Straight-Up Changed Their Names
1.You know Ariana Grande.
Her full name is Ariana Grande-Butara.
For the movie Wicked, Ariana is credited by her full name. She said she wanted to pay tribute to her younger self with this movie. "Technically, it’s my little girl name!" she said. “That was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old. It felt like a really lovely way of honoring that. It felt really full circle. It just felt like something I wanted to do.”
2.You know Chappell Roan.
Her full name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz.
Her stage name is inspired by her grandfather, Dennis K. Chappell, whose favorite song was "The Strawberry Roan" by Marty Robbins.
3.You know Pedro Pascal.
His full name is José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal.
He recently shared that he changed his name because he wanted to honor his mother, who died when he was 24. Her maiden name was Pascal.
4.You know Billie Eilish.
Her full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell.
Billie revealed that she actually was almost named Pirate. In her book, Billie Eilish, she wrote, "They called me 'Pirate' for months, and they were kind of planning on naming me Pirate. And soon before I was born, my grandfather died, and his name was William, aka Bill, Billie. And that's where my name came from."
5.You know Jamie Foxx.
His full name is Eric Marlon Bishop.
He explained that when he first started doing stand-up comedy, he performed under the name Eric Bishop and received standing ovations. But he realized that other comedians, who controlled the open mics, were intimidated by the competition and would prevent him from performing. So, he changed his name to something more "unisex" to disguise himself.
6.You know Jason Derulo.
His full name is Jason Joel Desrouleaux.
Derulo is actually the phonetic spelling of Desrouleaux.
7.You know Ralph Fiennes.
His full name is Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes.
Ralph is pronounced like RAYF and rhymes with the word "safe."
8.You know Reese Witherspoon.
Her full name is Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon.
Witherspoon is her father's last name, and Reese is her mother's last name.
9.You know Dove Cameron.
Her full name is Chloe Celeste Hosterman.
She changed her name to Dove as a tribute to her father, who died when she was a teenager. In a tweet she said, "My father always called me dove. he took his own life when I was 15; I didn't get to say goodbye, so I changed it in honor of him." She later explained that her friends and family still call her Chloe.
10.You know Mindy Kaling.
Her full name is Vera Mindy Chokalingam.
She explained to NHPR, "I shortened my name, because emcees for these comedy shows would have trouble pronouncing it, and then, they'd make a joke about my last name. My real name is Vera Mindy Chokalingam, and it's a South Indian name, and it's a long name. As a performer, these comedians would just butcher it and then be like, 'I don't know what it is! Just this girl, Mindy.' So, I would go do stand-up nights, and I already felt like a huge distance from the audience — just as a new comedian, but then even more distance because it had been made so clear that I was ethnic."
11.You know Brie Larson.
Her full name is Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers.
Brie took on the last name Larson because she was tired of people not being able to pronounce her French last name. She got the inspiration for the name change from her favorite American Girl Doll Kirsten Larson.
12.You know John Legend.
His full name is John Roger Stephens.
John got his last name from poet J. Ivy, who reportedly called John's music "old-school, like one of the legends."
13.You know Bruno Mars.
His full name is Peter Gene Hernandez.
He got the nickname Bruno from his dad, who thought he resembled pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino. He later added the last name Mars because he thought it added some pizzazz. He said, "A lot of girls say I’m out of this world, so I was like, I guess I’m from Mars."
14.You know Katy Perry.
Her full name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson.
She ended up changing her last name to avoid confusion with the already-established actor Kate Hudson. Perry is her mother's maiden name.
15.You know Michael Keaton.
His full name is Michael John Douglas.
He had to change his name because of the Screen Actors Guild rule that prohibits members from having the same name.
16.You know Whoopi Goldberg.
Her full name is Caryn Elaine Johnson.
Back in 1997, she shared that she named herself after a whoopee cushion. She said, "The true story is that my family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist, and Catholic — none of which I subscribe to, by the way, as I don't believe in man-made religions. So I took the last name from a Jewish ancestor. And I happen to be gaseous, which explains the first name, short for whoopee cushion."
17.You know Alicia Keys.
Her full name is Alicia Augello Cook.
Her stage name came to her in a dream, she explained. "It came from a dream, [with] a wonderful friend of mine named Michael Mauldin," she explained. "We were looking for a name and we couldn't find the last name. He was looking for the keys to his briefcase ... and he said, 'So what do you think, Alicia Keys? I was like, 'Keys' — I play the piano and that's keys, and keys open doors and I want to open doors ... And Keys it was."
18.You know Winona Ryder.
Her full name is Winona Laura Horowitz.
Winona actually changed her name on a whim. When asked by her agent what she wanted to be credited as, she happened to be listening to her dad's favorite musician Mitch Ryder.
19.You know Jon Bon Jovi.
His full name is John Francis Bongiovi Jr.
Back when he was first starting out and looking for a band name, a friend suggested they use Bon Jovi, similar to Van Halen. His children still use the last name Bongiovi. Jon even started a pasta sauce brand called Bongiovi and their products are inspired by his father's recipes.
20.You know Shania Twain.
Her full name is Eilleen Regina Twain.
On why she changed her name, she explained, “It’s actually a long story. 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.
“I think, in my mind, I was just not really wanting to be called my grandmother’s name onstage, so I decided to change it to Shania Twain,” she added. “I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born.”
21.You know Skeet Ulrich.
His full name is Bryan Ray Trout.
When he was a kid, he got the nickname Skeeter from his Little League coach, and he shortened it for his stage name. The name Ulrich comes from his first stepfather, whose name is D.K. Ulrich.
22.You know Tess Holliday.
Her full name is Ryann Maegen Hoven.
She changed her first name to Tess when she started modeling and used her then-fiancé's last name. She actually cycled through different stage names, like Tess Typhoon and Tess Munster, before being signed to Milk Model Management.
23.You know Shay Mitchell.
Her full name is Shannon Ashley Garcia Mitchell.
She told Glamour, "I love J.Lo, Jennifer Lopez. 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." She added that the nickname actually helped her a lot during auditions, too. She added, "When I was auditioning, I would go into rooms, and because it was a unique name, they'd ask me about it. So that would get me another minute in the room, which is always great."
24.Finally, you know Oscar Isaac.
His full name is Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada.
Oscar explained that he dropped his Cuban last name because he wanted to be considered for more roles. "All [casting directors] would see me for was ‘the gangster’ or whatever, so I was like, 'Well, let me see if this helps,'" he said.
