People pursuing careers in Hollywood use stage names for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes you might not even notice it because they only changed part of their name.
Here are 17 celebs who changed their first names for fame:
1. Shania Twain's real first name is Eilleen.
She said on her Apple Music show Home Now Radio, "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 [her middle name]. 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. I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born."
2. Tina Fey's first name is Elizabeth.
3. Halsey is actually Ashley Frangipane.
"Halsey" is an anagram of Ashley.
They told Cosmopolitan, "[Changing my name] gave me the opportunity to create a new persona that wasn't bound by the expectations I had for myself or the limitations that others placed on me because of my upbringing or my socioeconomic situation. I created a person, and she could do everything. There was no way that Ashley was going to become a king, but I made a new name for myself and took her to paranormal, supernatural heights."
4. Shay Mitchell's name is Shannon.
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. 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."
5. Idris Elba goes by a shortened version of his name, Idrissa.
As a teenager, he began going by "Idris" to ward off bullies he'd fight for taunting him because they thought "Idrissa" sounded feminine.
He told New York magazine, "I quickly got well known because I was tall and wasn’t taking any shit."
6. Tess Holliday's given name is Ryann.
She cycled through several stage names before signing with MILK Model Management, when she decided to stick with her then-fiancé's last name. She kept the last name professionally after their divorce.
She told People magazine, "I [originally] chose 'Tess Typhoon' because it sounded good, and then I chose 'Tess Munster' because I like TV show The Munsters."
7. Jude Law's first name is David.
He's gone by his middle name since he enrolled in drama school as a teenager, but it occasionally caused confusion.
He told Cosmopolitan, "[I was] assigned to the girls' dormitories and sleeping quarters when I was a teenager, and I joined the National Youth Music Theatre. Someone took a look at my name and clearly thought, It has to be a girl. How wrong can you get?"
8. Ashton Kutcher is actually Christopher.
He started going by his middle name when he began modeling.
On the Chicks in the Office podcast, he said, "When I was growing up — so my first name's Chris, and when I moved to New York, when I first came here, I got a modeling agent and she was like, 'We have like three Chris K.'s at the agency. There was another Chris K. and there was a couple of other Chrises, and she's like, 'What's your middle name?' I told her and she's like, 'That's your name now.'"
9. Erykah Badu goes by a different spelling of her legal first name, Erica. Her legal last name is Wright.
She reportedly changed the spelling because she thought Erica was a "slave name."
The "kah" is reportedly taken from an ancient Egyptian word meaning "inner self."
10. Julianne Moore's stage name is a combination of her real first and middle names, Julie Anne.
She also had to ditch her real last name, Smith, because of Screen Actors Guild rules that no two actors can register under the same name.
She told the Hollywood Reporter, "When I went to join SAG as Julie Smith, they were like, 'There's a Julie Smith, there's a Julie Anne Smith. You have to choose another name. My dad's name was Peter Moore Smith, and my mother's name was Anne Smith, and I used both their names so I wouldn't hurt anybody's feelings."
11. Barbra Streisand slightly altered the spelling of her given name, Barbara.
She told CBS News, "I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change my name because that was too false. You know, people were saying, 'You could be Joanie Sands,' or something like that. [Her middle name is Joan.] And I said, 'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's unique."
12. Emma Stone is actually Emily.
She told W Magazine, "My real name is Emily Stone, but when I started acting, that name was already taken by another actress, so I had to come up with a different one. For a 16-year-old, picking a new name is an interesting prospect, and back then I said, 'I’m now going to be Riley Stone!' So for about six months, I was called Riley. I landed a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle, and one day they were calling, 'Riley! Riley! Riley! We need you on set, Riley!' and I had no idea who they were talking to. At that moment, I realized that I just couldn't be Riley. So I became Emma. But I miss Emily. I would love to get her back."
13. Frank Ocean's birth name is Christopher.
He was born Christopher Breaux, but in 2015, he legally changed his name to Frank Ocean.
14. Reese Witherspoon's given name is Laura Jeanne.
She reportedly chose to use her middle name professionally in honor of her mom, whose maiden name is Reese.
15. Zayn Malik changed the spelling of his first name, Zain.
He also decided to drop his last name when he went solo.
16. Mindy Kaling's first name is actually Vera.
Her stage name consists of her middle name and a shortened version of her last name, Chokalingam.
She told 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. ... [There are several prominent] comedians who changed their names, and I felt it was the easiest thing for me to do, and ultimately it was really beneficial to do it. It was something that I had a lot of mixed feelings about. But my parents didn't mind. I talked to them about it. And then I ended up shortening it. It's bittersweet, but I have to say, it was such a help to my career to have a name that people could pronounce."
17. And finally, Keke Palmer's first name is Lauren.
She told Glamour, "I actually don't prefer to go by Keke instead of Lauren. The only people that called me Keke were people in my family. Then one day, my manager at that time heard my mom call me Keke because I wasn't listening. He said, 'That should be your stage name.' So [Keke] went from being just something that my family called me to being something that the whole world called me. And more than anything, I would love to go back to Lauren."