Stars' Real Names vs. Celebrity Pseudonyms (PHOTOS)

What's in a name? Well, when it comes to a celebrity's moniker, there could be more than a few zeros riding on it.

From Old Hollywood icons whom we couldn't imagine having a different signature to new talent seeking a catchy pseudonym, a surprising number of celebrities have opted out of the names given to them by dear old mom and dad.

Elizabeth Grant is hoping to make it big as Lana Del Rey. Elton John ditched his birth name, Reginald Kenneth Dwight, before being knighted. And can you imagine calling funny man Chevy Chase "Cornelius Crane Chase"? Now, that's a mouthful.

Check out these celebrities who've ditched their birth-given names for the sake of show business:

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[On the MIKE]

03:37 AM on 02/10/2012

wow! that was the kind of hard hiting journalism we have all come to demand and expect from the huffington post, By the way, Mike Tyon's real first name is Michael, Bill clinton is actually William.

[eliteandproud]

11:23 PM on 02/09/2012

I knew most of these real names - Helen Mirren's was a surprise.

Are we supposed to know who Lana del Mar is by that name or Elizabeth Grant? Man, the video explaining who she is includes blather from the Guardian about American obsession with celebrity? Britain, heal thyself.

[novabird]

02:32 PM on 02/09/2012

That was fascinating to see the birth names of these celebrities. I notice that most of the odd sounding, old fashioned or foreign sounding names were replaced by short, simple, catchy names.

By the way, Joan Rivers is looking pretty much embalmed these days. She really need to stop the plastic surgery. She is starting to look like that scary-ugly "cat woman".

[BassguyGG]

11:09 AM on 02/10/2012

She is defintely getting into Jocelyn Wildenstein territory.

[leskataus]

12:57 PM on 02/09/2012

Albert Brooks' real name is Albert Einstein.

[leskataus]

12:27 PM on 02/09/2012

Some of them, such as Demi Moore and Pat Benatar, use the names from an early marriage. Others like Bruce Willis and Dakota Fanning, are using their middle names. Julie Andrews took the name of her stepfather when her mother remarried. I'm not sure why Charlie Sheen uses that name but his father took the name Sheen in honor of Fulton Sheen, who had a popular religious TV show in the 1950s.

[westphilly726]

07:38 PM on 02/08/2012

My mother should have named me Athena.

[novabird]

02:33 PM on 02/09/2012

I know a girl named Athena but she is no goddess.

[westphilly726]

03:20 PM on 02/09/2012

LOL

[eliteandproud]

11:17 PM on 02/09/2012

I know a woman named Athena who has children named Elvis and Cleopatra.

[stanschurman]

05:44 PM on 02/08/2012

Was there any point to any of this, especially where the stage name is simply a contraction or common nickname of or for the real name? Most of us know that celebs often change ther names for various reasons, so why is this suddenly article-worthy?

[thunder405]

05:03 PM on 02/08/2012

Only whoopi changed to a Jewish name
instead of away from it. She's funny.

[leskataus]

12:29 PM on 02/09/2012

She has said that there are people with the last name of Goldberg in her family. She took the name Whoopi because of whoopie cushions. That was because she ate a lot of beans and suffered from frequent flatulence.

[novabird]

02:33 PM on 02/09/2012

Seriously? There is a video clip on Youtube of her farting on "The View".

[DG3]

03:38 PM on 02/08/2012

Now I want to change me name to something cooler.

[George Headden]

03:05 PM on 02/08/2012

Almost like the Black Men of the late 20th & 21st Century.
Iced Tea. Snoop Dog, Ice Cube, Where is their brain?

[leskataus]

12:30 PM on 02/09/2012

Those are just their names they started using when they became rappers. They use their real names of Tracy Marrow, Calvin Broadus, and O'Shea Jackson in private life.

[monstersfromtheid]

02:43 PM on 02/08/2012

So, if Joaquin Phoenix real last name is Bottom, then his late brother's real name was...

River Bottom.

Can't imagine why he would change that.

[Justgo4it]

06:34 PM on 02/08/2012

not cool to mock the dead, not cool at all.

[novabird]

02:36 PM on 02/09/2012

actually, it was a witty comment, not really nasty.

[leskataus]

12:31 PM on 02/09/2012

Their parents became members of the Children of God cult and changed their last name from Bottom to Phoenix.

[Stacey Schley]

02:35 PM on 02/08/2012

I had no idea so many didn't use their real names. Some where obvious shortenings of their given name but so many completely made up.

[Justgo4it]

06:41 PM on 02/08/2012

they are called stage names, been done for many, many years. How does Frederick Austerlitz and Virginia Katherine McMath sound, seeing they were renamed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, big difference, huh.

[eliteandproud]

11:29 PM on 02/09/2012

Oh there are many, many more: John Wayne was Marion Morrison, Cary Grant was Archibald Leach, Judy Garland was Frances Gumm.... We all know Marilyn was originally Norma Jean. Stage Names are a huge part of Hollywood mythology. Busby Berkeley, oddly, was his real name.

[BillRogs]

01:50 PM on 02/08/2012

For the brain dead it is called Stage names. Almost all Musicians do it as do movie stars. This has been going on since Hollywood was was invented.

[leskataus]

12:33 PM on 02/09/2012

That's true and originally, the reason many actors changed their names was because they had foreign sounding names that were often difficult to spell and pronounce.

[pghken]

02:48 AM on 02/10/2012

also,to register in the actors union they need a unique name, they can't use their own if it's already been used. That's why Micheal keaton can't use his real last name Douglas

[mama44]

01:45 PM on 02/08/2012

like all of hollywood, they try to force things on us.....there is no now family,no values even in the soaps, like days of lives. the writers thing we dont remember the past story lines.... well there wrong, we want goood tv back...

[sheppard1]

02:55 PM on 02/08/2012

Wow - change your name to Meg Ativity... No one is 'forcing' you to watch anything you don't want to watch or listen to anything you don't want to listen to. Stop playing the victim.

Lots of good TV out there if you look for it..... otherwise, pickup a good book.

[eliteandproud]

11:32 PM on 02/09/2012

It's part of the Hollywood mythology. If your idea of good TV is Days of Our Lives, surely you can find some Mexican telenovelas with English subtitles.

[LemonLyman]

12:43 PM on 02/08/2012

Tina Fey and Jack Black should be removed from this list. Using a nickname for their real middle name and the real last name does not fit the category.