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  4. 27 Celebrities Who Changed Their Names

27 Celebrities Who Changed Their Names

From shortened last names to childhood nicknames that stuck, these celebrities made a major switch before entering Hollywood
By Jodi Guglielmi February 11, 2020 05:06 PM
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Kirk Douglas 

Kirk Douglas
Credit: Nancy R. Schiff/Getty Images

The late Kirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch in upstate New York, the son of poor and illiterate Russian immigrants Herschel and Bryna, who later went by Harry and Bertha.

He told PEOPLE in 2015 that, before pursuing a career in show business, he changed his name because his given name was too unwieldy and too Jewish for Hollywood at the time.

“I wish I had kept it,” he said, looking back on the decision. “It’s more interesting to keep your original name. But can you imagine that name on a marquee?”

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Dove Cameron

"Clueless, The Musical" Opening Night
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Born Chloe Celeste Hoffman, the actress legally changed her name to Dove as a tribute to her late father, who called her that as a nickname.

"He called me Dove more than he ever called me Chloe," she told StyleWatch. "He passed away when I was 15, and I decided to legally change it. So it's on my passport – everything legal is Dove." However, she says, she responds to both, and friends and family still call her Chloe.

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John Legend

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Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Born John Roger Stephens, the singer's stage name comes from a childhood nickname that stuck.

"John Legend is a nickname that some friends started calling me, and it kind of grew into my stage name," he told MTV in 2008. "It grew to the point where more people in my circle would know me by that name than by my real name."

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Meg Ryan

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The actress' moniker might sound short and sweet, but her real name is quite a mouthful: Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra.

She began using her grandmother's maiden name "Ryan" as a surname when she joined the Screen Actors Guild, Entertainment Weekly reported.

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Audrey Hepburn

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The origins of Hepburn's true name are shrouded in mystery. Sources have disagreed on the exact birthname of the Belgian-born actress, but The New York Times reported she was born Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston.

The names Edda, Audrey (the English form of the Dutch name Edda), and Andrey (a feminine form of Andrew) can be found in different biographies, although Edda is found most frequently, according to Britannica.

Sources do agree, however, that Hepburn’s mother was the Dutch baroness Ella van Heemstra and that her British father’s surname was Ruston, though he went by the more aristocratic-sounding name Hepburn-Ruston, believing he was a descendant of Mary, Queen of Scots, the encyclopedia reports.

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Vin Diesel

Premiere Of Disney And Marvel's "Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2" - Arrivals

Apparently the name Mark Sinclair didn't sound tough enough for the actor when he was working as a New York City bouncer before his big break.

The action star shortened his mother's maiden name Vincent to get his new first name. As for "Diesel," he once revealed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that he got the nickname from friends who said he was always full of energy.

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Nicki Minaj

amfAR's 24th Cinema Against AIDS Gala, Arrivals, 70th Cannes Film Festival, France - 25 May 2017
Credit: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock

The Trinidadian-born rapper's stage moniker is a shortened version of her real name, Onika Tanya Maraj.

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Calvin Harris

2012 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals
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Fans might have raised an eyebrow when Taylor Swift thanked her then-boyfriend "Adam" at the 2016 iHeartRadio Awards last April — but the deejay goes by Adam Richard Wiles when he's not spinning records.

The Scottish musician told the Shortlist in 2009 that he decided to change his name "to exploit the racial ambiguity of his stage name," according to Esquire.

"My first single was more of a soul track, and I thought Calvin Harris sounded a bit more racially ambiguous," he said. "I thought people might not know if I was black or not. After that, I was stuck with it."

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Charlie Sheen

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The actor simplified his name from Carlos Irwin Estevez, adopting his dad Martin Sheen's stage surname.

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Diane Keaton

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Her real surname is Hall, as in Annie Hall, the character she played in the Woody Allen film of the same name, which won her an Oscar. Allen wrote the role specifically for the actress, whom he had previously dated, taking her real last name and combining it with her nickname, Annie, according to Stig Björkman's Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation with Stig Björkman.

The actress originally changed her surname to Keaton, her mother's maiden name, because there was apparently another actress named Diane Hall in the Actors' Equity Association, according to Vogue.

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Olivia Wilde

Celebrity Sightings in New York City - June 13, 2017
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Paying tribute to Oscar Wilde, one of her favorite authors, the actress changed her last name from Cockburn when she began acting.

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Katy Perry

Katy Perry In Germany
Credit: Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa /MediaPunch

The pop star was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson but changed her name so she wouldn't be confused with actress Kate Hudson.

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Miley Cyrus

The Voice - Season 12

Cyrus legally changed her name from Destiney Hope to Miley (a rendition of her childhood nickname "Smiley) in 2008.

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Nina Dobrev

2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter - Arrivals
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The Bulgarian actress shortened her name from Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva.

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Jamie Foxx

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The Oscar winner was born Eric Marlon Bishop but changed his name to the more gender-ambiguous Jamie Foxx during his days performing stand-up comedy.

The actor-comedian chose the more femine-sounding name because female comedians were often called to the stage first, Yahoo reports.

He chose "Foxx" in honor of Sanford and Sons' star Redd Foxx.

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Joaquin Phoenix

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The actor's parents changed the family last name from Bottom to Phoenix to represent a new beginning.

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Bruno Mars

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Credit: LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 02: Bruno Mars performs at 102.7 KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2016 at Staples Center on December 2, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

Born Peter Gene Hernandez, he later told Latina magazine, "My dad nicknamed me Bruno since I was 2 years old.

"I was going to go by 'Bruno,' one name. Mars just kind of came joking around because that sounds bigger than life. That was it, simple as that."

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Michael Keaton

The 31st Santa Barbara International Film Festival - American Riviera Award
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The actor was forced to change his name in order to enter the actor's union since his birth name, Michael Douglas, was already taken by another future Academy Award nominee.

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Tom Cruise

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He might be the one and only Tom Cruise in Hollywood, but not in his family! The actor's birth name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. He began using his middle name as a surname at the behest of an agent.

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Demi Moore

"Blind" New York Premiere
Credit: Gary Gershoff/WireImage

Sometimes less is Moore! Born Demetria Gene Guynes, the actress shortened her first name to just Demi. The star's last name is a holdover from her first marriage to singer Freddy Moore.

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Whoopi Goldberg

44th Chaplin Award Gala - Backstage
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Born Caryn Elaine Johnson, the Oscar winner has explained that her stage name "Whoopi" comes from whooppee cushion.

"If you get a little gassy, you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from," she told The New York Times.

Goldberg is her mother's maiden name, which she opted to use in the hope of being taken more seriously, stating in 2011 that: "My mother did not name me Whoopi, but Goldberg is my name, it's part of my family, part of my heritage. Just like being black."

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Marilyn Monroe

Portrait Of Marilyn Monroe
Credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

It's hard to imagine the iconic actress by any other name, but Monroe went by several different monikers throuought her life, even before she landed in Hollywood.

Monroe was bapitized Norma Jeane Baker, but the name on her birth certificate was Norma Jeane Mortenson. It changed again after she married James Dougherty and adopted his surname.

She didn't legally change her name to Marilyn Monroe until 1956, but she had beem publicly known by the moniker since 1946. Ben Lyon, a 20th Century Fox executive, gave her the name Marilyn because she reminded him of actress Marilyn Miller. She picked Monroe after her mother's maiden name.

She later went by Marilyn Monroe Miller, after marrying author Arthur Miller in 1956.

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Natalie Portman

77th Annual Academy Awards - Arrivals

Born Neta-Lee Hershlag, the actress, who has dual American and Israeli citizenship, took her paternal grandmother's maiden name "Portman" as her stage name for privacy reasons.

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Alicia Keys

2016 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals

Turns out, the singer's name and impressive piano skills are no coincidence! She changed her name from Alicia Augello Cook to reflect her love of music.

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Winona Ryder

23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Red Carpet
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The actress changed her last name from Horowitz when she was asked how she would like to have her name appear on the credits of her first role. She suggested Ryder as Mitch Ryder's album was playing in the background.

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Jennifer Aniston

Vanity Fair Oscar Party, Los Angeles, USA - 26 Feb 2017

No, her real name is not secretly Rachel Green — It's Jennifer Linn Anastassakis! Her Greek father, actor John Aniston, changed the family last name when he went into show business.

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Elton John

Elton John Performs At Save On Foods Memorial Centre
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Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, the singer started going by the name "Elton John" in honor of two blues legends: saxophonist Elton Dean and singer Long John Baldry.

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    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

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    1 of 27 Kirk Douglas 
    2 of 27 Dove Cameron
    3 of 27 John Legend
    4 of 27 Meg Ryan
    5 of 27 Audrey Hepburn
    6 of 27 Vin Diesel
    7 of 27 Nicki Minaj
    8 of 27 Calvin Harris
    9 of 27 Charlie Sheen
    10 of 27 Diane Keaton
    11 of 27 Olivia Wilde
    12 of 27 Katy Perry
    13 of 27 Miley Cyrus
    14 of 27 Nina Dobrev
    15 of 27 Jamie Foxx
    16 of 27 Joaquin Phoenix
    17 of 27 Bruno Mars
    18 of 27 Michael Keaton
    19 of 27 Tom Cruise
    20 of 27 Demi Moore
    21 of 27 Whoopi Goldberg
    22 of 27 Marilyn Monroe
    23 of 27 Natalie Portman
    24 of 27 Alicia Keys
    25 of 27 Winona Ryder
    26 of 27 Jennifer Aniston
    27 of 27 Elton John

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