11 Celebs Who Explained The Meaning Behind Their Stage Name, And 11 Who Shared Why They Won't Use One
Uzo Aduba once asked her mom if she could change her name to Zoe. "I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent, she said, 'Why?' I said, 'Nobody can pronounce it.' Without missing a beat, she said, 'If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.'"
The singer told Cosmopolitan, "I think I had the foresight to know that being me wasn’t enough. I had to become somebody completely different. At the time, I felt that Ashley didn’t deserve to be famous and successful because she wasn’t that special, but if I made Halsey, maybe she could be. [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."
In 2019, the comedian went viral for correcting Ellen DeGeneres's pronunciation of his name during her show. He later explained on The Patriot Act that people pressured him to change his name when he first got into comedy. So, he spent two months introducing himself at open mics as Sean.
But he quickly realized that didn't align with his principles — though many Asian folks are similarly pressured to change their names. "You'll have people who are like, 'This is my Chinese name, this is my American name.' But I'm like, 'Dude, fuck that.' Your name's your name."
On an episode of the Late Show with David Letterman, the actor said the reason why he changed his name was due to stand-up comedy. "I noticed it would be, like, 1,000 guys show up and only three girls, but the three girls would always get a spot, and they would choose from the list. So, I went to the list and wrote down unisex names. Stacey Green. Tracey Brown. Jamie Foxx."
"I would never change my name," she said on an episode of the Awards Chatter podcast. "When I was a child and nobody else was called Saoirse — for the record, it’s 'Sir-shuh' like inertia, although people in Ireland actually pronounce it 'Seer-shuh,' so take your pick — I thought, 'Oh, I’d like a normal name,' just because I was a kid. But the older I got, I decided I was never gonna change anything for anyone."
In 2020, she told NHPR that she shortened her name when she got into comedy because no one could pronounce it — some people even made jokes about it. "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.'"
"When you do comedy...these are all 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."
6.Refused: Keanu Reeves
On the Smartless podcast, he recalled being told his name was "too ethnic" when he first got to Hollywood. Though he was annoyed about it, he came up with a few different options that his agent didn't approve: Chuck Spadina and Templeton Page-Taylor. They agreed to try out Casey Reeves, but Keanu couldn't do it. "Eventually, I went back to my agents, and I was like, 'I can't change my name.'"
7.Changed their name: Whoopi Goldberg
In 2006, she told the New York Times, "When you’re performing on stage, you never really have time to go into the bathroom and close the door. So, 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."
8.Refused: Zoe Saldaña
She told Entertainment Weekly that her former management discouraged her from using her real name. "My manager at the time was a former singer and a ballroom performer, and she did change her name as well, when she was a teenager back in the '60s, I believe. And she said it's what everybody does... That was her doing the best that she wanted for me, but I still knew that I liked my name."
9.Changed their name: Nicolas Cage
During a Wired interview, the actor said he changed his name due to his connection to his uncle, director Francis Ford Coppola. "I changed my name because I was doing a little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and I was still Nicolas Coppola. People would not stop saying things like, 'I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning' because of Apocalypse Now, Robert Duvall saying, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning.' And it made it hard to work. I decided I don't need this, so I changed it to Cage."
10.Refused: Ke Huy Quan
After winning an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, he told reporters that he started out in Hollywood using his real name. "When it got really tough, my manager told me that 'maybe, you know, it would be easier if you were to have an American sounding name,' and I was so desperate for a job that I would do anything," he recalled. But after using the name Jonathan and taking a long break from acting, "The very first thing that I wanted to do was to go back to my birth given name."
11.Changed their name: Bruno Mars
During a 2013 interview with Rap-Up, the singer said, "Bruno is after Bruno Sammartino, who was this big, fat wrestler. I guess I was this chunky little baby, so my dad used to call me that as a nickname."
In 2013, the actor told GQ that the music industry tried to box him in due to his last name. "'Your last name's Hernandez,'" he recalled people telling him. "'Maybe you should do this Latin music, this Spanish music. ... Enrique's so hot right now.'" He ended up picking the name Mars and sidestepped the issue. "Mars just kind of came [from] joking around because that sounds bigger than life. That was it, simple as that," he told Latina Magazine.
12.Refused: Uzo Aduba
The actor told the Improper Bostonian, "My family is from Nigeria, and my full name is Uzoamaka, which means 'the road is good.' Quick lesson: My tribe is Igbo, and you name your kid something that tells your history and hopefully predicts your future."
She recalled asking her mom in grade school if she could change her name to Zoe. "I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent, she said, 'Why?' I said, 'Nobody can pronounce it.' Without missing a beat, she said, 'If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.'"
13.Changed their name: Lana Del Rey
During a 2012 interview with MTV, she said, "I knew that I wanted a name that sounded sort of exotic and reminded me of the seaside on the Floridian coast. 'Lana Del Rey' sounded beautiful."
14.Refused: Francia Raisa
During an interview with Bustle, she revealed that she's been pressured to mispronounce her name. "There are things that people told me not to do. For example, I was told one time that I should pronounce my name more Americanized. There were things that people told me to do that, for a second, I was like, 'I'm not comfortable,' but I went off what they told me. Because I was just so desperate to make it, I was willing to do anything. Then at one point, I said no, I don't want to do that... I don't want to pronounce my name this way, because it is pronounced with an accent."
15.Changed their name: Awkwafina
In 2017, the actor told Galore, "I just really thought it was funny when people try to subtilize products like Neutrogena. Because I just imagine someone sitting there, thinking about all these weird names, especially the water names. But anyways, I just came up with it when I was 16 and thought it was really funny. And then, I eventually adopted it."
"My rap name was just Aquafina, but then I think when we were putting out the video, the guy that made the video...he was like, 'Well, we should change the spelling so you don't get sued,'" she recalled. "So, he spelled it so extra. He spelled it in the most extra way ever. So, I was like, 'I feel like people aren't going to understand this,' and he was like, 'Yeah, but I feel like it would be unique, so then people [will] look it up.' But then, no one knows how to spell it. So, you know, it came back to bite me in the ass."
16.Refused: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
During an interview with Variety, the Never Have I Ever actor spoke about the importance of respecting names. "Obviously, Tamil names are super long. My entire full name — Maitreyi Ramakrishnan — I have 20 letters... I think one of the greatest disrespects you can do to a person is not put the effort into somebody’s name."
17.Changed their name: Alicia Keys
In 2007, the singer told Newsweek, "I got so desperate I went through the dictionary for something that catches my eye. I get to the W's, and I pick Wild. 'Alicia Wild, how does that sound, Ma?' She said, 'It sounds like you're a stripper.' But I liked Keys. It's like the piano keys. And it can open so many doors."
18.Refused: Harrison Ford
On the Team Coco podcast, the actor recalled a studio exec urging him to change his name early in his career since Harrison Ford was apparently "a pretentious name for a young man." He came back with a hilarious suggestion (Kurt Affair), knowing the studio wouldn't approve.
19.Changed their name: Jo Koy
During the Netflix special In His Elements, the comedian shared that people would laugh at his name when he did stand-up early in his career. He was mulling over different options when his aunt called him over to eat with her nickname for him: Jo Koy. For over 30 years, he's used that as his stage name.
"I go, 'Then what do you call me?' She goes, 'I call you Jo ko. That is your nickname. Jo ko.' And for all of you at home who don't know what that means: In Tagalog, ko means my. My nickname is my Jo. Jo ko. How fucking sweet is that?"
20.Refused: Michael Peña
The actor told GQ that he noticed other people landing commercials when they changed their names. "I just thought it was a slap in the face. Because I did deal with racism as a kid. So, it felt like changing my name would be kind of like conforming. I'm not really down for that. I know that my parents, they crossed the border to offer us a great life. And I didn't want to turn my back on my dad working two full-time jobs, my mom working two full-time jobs, so me and my brother could go to private school."
21.Changed their name: KJ Apa
On an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the TV show host asked what KJ stands for. The actor replied, "KJ is short for Keneti James, which is a Samoan name. I'm named after my father."
22.And finally, refused: Danai Gurira
In an essay written for Glamour, she recalled using the nickname Dede while growing up in Iowa and continuing to use it when her family moved back to Zimbabwe. With a librarian mother, there were tons of books around the house, and she started reading literature by Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King Jr.
"I realized my heritage was to be celebrated, not denied. I didn’t want to fit in to what I perceived as a more Western, more acceptable mainstream. I wanted to bring light to those who should be seen more, heard more: people of marginalized cultures. I began to ask people to call me Danai. That choice has affected every choice I’ve made since — the stories I tell, the characters I play, the activism I embark upon."
Know any other famous people who use stage names or refused to take one? LMK in the comments below!
