Ever thought of changing your name into something that sounds cool like, John Legend or Alicia Keys? We know that it will sound really awesome if you would get to be called in a cool, catchy, and one-of-a-kind name. Most of the people who made the decision to change their names are celebrities because they wanted it to be catchy and easy to remember so that the people will not have a hard time trying to remember who they are.
Hey it’s all about the image right? That’s Hollywood for ya.Let’s take a look at some celebrities who changed their names.
1. John Legend
John Legends real name is John Roger Stephens. The singer said that his stage name came from a childhood name. He said that his friends used to call him John Legend and he kind of grew into it at adapted it as his stage name.
2. Elton John
The world-renowned singer was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight. He said his stage name came from two blues legends namely Long John Baldry and Elton Dean. He coined their names and turned into another legend himself.
3. Jennifer Aniston
Unfortunately, her real name is not Rachel Green (her Friends character) its Jennifer Linn Anastassakis. And her Greek dad, John Aniston decided to change their family’s last name when he entered theentertainment industry.
4. Winona Ryder
Born Winona Laura Horowitz, the actress changed her last name to Ryder when she was asked how her name would like to appear on the end credits of her first acting role. She said the surname Ryder because Mitch Ryder’s album was playing in the background.
5. Alicia Keys
Born Alicia Augello Cook, this extra talented singer changed her name to Alicia Keys to reflect her love of making music.
6. Natalie Portman
The Black Swan actress has a dual American and Israeli citizenship was born with the name Nata-Lee Hershlag. When she entered show business, she decided to take her paternal grandmother’s last name Portman as her screen name because of certain privacy reasons.
7. Marilyn Monroe
Born Norma Jeane Baker, this iconic bombshell went by several different names ever since she entered Hollywood. She was baptized with the name Norma Jeane Baker but her birth certificate states that her name was Norma Jeane Mortenson. She then decided to change her surname when she decided to marry James Dougherty.
Although she did not legally change her name to Marilyn Monroe until 1956, she had been famously known by that name since 1946.
8. Whoopi Goldberg
The Oscar-winning actress was born with the name Caryn Elaine Johnson and the story on how she got her stage name was pretty silly. She said Whoopi came from whoopee cushion because she said that she was not embarrassed to release gas in front of people that’s why they used to say to her that she’s like a whoopee cushion and from then on the name was stuck. Her surname, Goldberg was her mother’s maiden name.
9. Demi Moore
Born Demetria Gene Guynes, this stunning actress decided to shortened her name to just Demi when she entered Hollywood. She got her last name from her first marriage to singer Freddy Moore.
10. Tom Cruise
It turns out that he is not the one and only Tom Cruise in the world. This actor’s real name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. He just used his middle name as his surname because an agent suggested him to do it when he entered the show business.
11. Katy Perry
Born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, this quirky singer changed her name into Katy Perry when she entered the music industry because she does not want to be mistaken from the actress Kate Hudson.
12. Olivia Wilde
Born Olivia Jane Cockburn, Olivia Wilde decided to change her name when she entered the entertainment industry. She decided to keep her first name and she got her last name from the famous author Oscar Wilde because she said that she starred in one of his plays in high school.
13. Bruno Mars
This award-winning songwriter, singer, producer, and dancer was born with the name Pete Gene Hernandez. He got his name Bruno when his dad started calling him by that name since he was two years old. His last name Mars just came into his mind and he thought it would be cool to use it as his last name because it sounds bigger than life.
14. Miley Cyrus
Born Destiney Hope Cyrus, this singer and actress decided to change her name into Miley in 2008. A name she got from her childhood nickname, Smiley.
15. Nicki Minaj
This Trinidadian-born rapper and singer’s name is a shortened version of her real name which is Onika Tanya Maraj.
16. Vin Diesel
He thought that Mark Sinclair did not sound tough enough that’s why he changed his name into Vin Diesel when he was just working as a bouncer in New York City.
17. Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen thought that his real name, Carlos Irwin Estevez was too long to pronounce and remember that’s why he decided to changed it into simply Charlie Sheen in which he adopted his dad Martin Sheen’s stage surname
18. Nicolas Cage
His real name was Nicolas Kim Coppola and he changed it into Nicolas Cage because he wanted to disassociate himself from the Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola who happened to be his uncle.
19. Iggy Azelia
Born Amethyst Amelia Kelly, this Australian rapper said her new name came from her dog named Iggy and Azalea came from the street her family lives on.
20. Jamie Foxx
This singer comedian was born with the name Eric Marlon Bishop. He changed his name to Jamie Foxx while he was just starting out in comedy because he said female comedienne was always getting called in first to perform that’s why he chose a gender-neutral name.