15 Celebrities Who Drastically Changed Their Names

Giovana GelhorenSun, October 4, 2026 at 1:20 PM UTC

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Lady Gaga and Elton JohnCredit: Getty ImagesTHE GIST -

Many celebrities in Hollywood g by drastically different names than what they were born with.

Among them is singer Lady Gaga, who was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.

Gaga changed her name not only to protect herself from fame by separating herself from her art, but also to use the persona as a “new beginning.”

While having a stage name in Hollywood is far from being a requirement, many major stars adopted new names when they started pursuing their careers.

One of the most famous name changes, for instance, is Lady Gaga, who was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. “Stefani is me, the artist, the creator, and Lady Gaga is my creation,” she said in an October 2025 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“Creating Lady Gaga was a way for me to become something I felt that I didn’t already have inside of me,” she continued, calling Gaga “the star I wanted to be.” “I created this other thing to give me wings,” the “Bad Romance” singer and new mom explained.

“It was like a new beginning,” she continued, adding that having the Gaga persona felt more artistic but emotionally safer too. “Because Gaga was pursuing and experiencing fame, it was kind of like this thing where I could safely leave behind all the hard stuff that I went through and inhabit a new persona of someone that was really strong and resilient and tough that you wouldn’t want to mess with,” she said.

Below, check out more stars who have adopted completely different names, and their inspirations behind them.

01 of 15

Elton John

Elton JohnCredit: Michael Kovac/Getty for Elton John AIDS Foundation

“Tiny Dancer” singer Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight. “Reginald is a really old-fashioned name,” Elton told Good Morning America, per Billboard. “It’s shortened to Reggie, which I hated. I just didn’t like it, and as soon as I could, I changed my name.”

Elton John then became a combination of two other musicians: saxophonist Elton Dean and singer Long John Baldry.

02 of 15

Lady Gaga

Lady GagaCredit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images

16-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, per Business Insider, the name came from a friendly nickname as well as Queen’s 1984 song “Radio Ga Ga.” She explained that “Gaga” was “just a nickname [her] friends had for [her] in New York and [her producer], and it just kind of stuck.”

03 of 15

Bruno Mars

Bruno MarsCredit: Rich Fury/Getty Images for iHeartRadio

“Just the Way You Are” singer Bruno Mars was born Peter Gene Hernandez. Per a 2013 interview with GQ, his first name Bruno was a childhood nickname because he looked like the famous wrestler, Bruno Sammartino.

Years later, when he was entering the music industry, he changed his name to avoid being stereotyped and pigeonholed into Latin and Spanish music. “Enrique [Iglesias] so hot right now,” producers would tell him at the time. Mars then solved the issue by adopting a last name that has no cultural background. “The best way to avoid being stereotyped by race is to sound as though you come from a different planet altogether,” the outlet wrote.

04 of 15

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus attends the Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards in Palm Springs, California on January 3, 2026.Credit: Getty Images

Before being a music sensation, Miley Cyrus was born as Destiny Hope Cyrus. “It’s a big shoe to fill,” Cyrus said on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, per Miami Herald. She then explained that her parents, Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus, “thought it was my destiny to bring hope to the world.”

Miley came from her childhood nickname, Smiley. As for Cyrus, she’s kept her last name for most of her career but has recently dropped it to only go by her first name ahead of her new album, Bass Persuades. “Family means more than ever now,” her dad Billy Ray wrote on X. “I always called my little girl Miley. Just … Miley

05 of 15

Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx at the AAFCA Special Achievement Awards Luncheon on March 3, 2024.Credit: Getty Images

Jamie Foxx’s birth name is Eric Marlon Bishop, and his stage name was more strategic than anything else. As he once explained on Late Show with David Letterman, he first went by Jamie Foxx when he was a stand-up comedian struggling to get his name called.

“I noticed that like 1,000 guys showed up and only three girls, but the three girls would always get a spot,” Foxx remembered. “So I went to the list and wrote down a unisex name... Jamie Foxx.” That night, he took the stage, received a standing ovation, and the name stuck. His last name also pays homage to Redd Foxx, a late comedian and actor.

06 of 15

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn MonroeCredit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The iconic Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and later baptized Norma Jeane Baker. By the time she was entering the industry, however, she had adopted the last name “Dougherty,” from her first husband, James Dougherty.

Per Time, she completely changed her name during a meeting with studio executive Ben Lyon when she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. Monroe was a suggestion from the actress herself, a last name from her mother’s side of the family, while Lyon came up with Marilyn because she reminded him of Marilyn Miller, the Ziegfeld Follies Broadway musical star who starred with him and in Her Majesty, Love. “Dear Ben, You found me, named me and believed in me when no one else did,” Monroe wrote under a photograph of their meeting. “My thanks and love forever. Marilyn”

07 of 15

Katy Perry

Katy Perry at the Tribeca Festival’s premiere of ‘Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour - Live from Paris’ held at the OKX Theater on June 8, 2026 in New York, New York.Credit: Getty Images

While a few outlets report that Katy Perry changed her birth name, Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, to not be confused with actress Kate Hudson, the “Teenage Dream” singer has explained that the decision was about much more than that.

“I created this wonderful character called Katy Perry that I very much am, and can step into all the time, but I created that character out of protection,” she told The Guardian in 2017. “I was scared that if you saw me, Katheryn Hudson, the girl wearing the Bioré strip on my nose, you’d be like, ‘that’s not glamorous’. It was me going, ‘OK, I’ve been upset my whole childhood so I’m going to show the world I am something, that I am going to do something and that I am enough.’”

“I didn’t want to be Katheryn Hudson,” she continued. “I hated that, it was too scary for me, so I decided to be someone else.”

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08 of 15

Natalie Portman

Natalie PortmanCredit: Getty Images

Much like Perry, Natalie Portman, who was born Neta-Lee Hershlag, used her stage name to create a different identity for herself. “I chose a different name when I started, which was kind of an interesting way that I separated identities,” she told Marie Claire UK.

“I would get upset if someone at school called me Natalie Portman,” she continued. “I was like, if you know me, you know me as Neta-Lee Hershlag at school. It was kind of an extreme bifurcation of identity that I’ve tried to integrate a little bit more as an adult.”

Portman came from the actress’s maternal grandmother’s maiden name, while Natalie was simply an Americanized version of her Hebrew first name.

09 of 15

Lorde

Lorde at the Met Gala on May 5, 2025.Credit: Getty Images

“Solar Power” singer Lorde was born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor. When she began pursuing music, however, she changed her name to set herself apart.

“I much prefer being called Ella,” she told ABC News Radio. “I basically chose Lorde because I wanted a name that was really strong and had this grandeur to it. I didn’t feel that my birth name was anything special.”

10 of 15

Cardi B

Cardi BCredit: Getty Images

Rapper and fashion icon Cardi B was born under the name Belcalis Almanzar. Speaking to Jimmy Fallon in 2017, she explained that the name came from her family nickname.

“My sister’s name is Hennessy, so everyone used to call me Bacardi, and I started calling myself Bacardi,” she explained. But as she embraced Bacardi as her name, her social media accounts kept getting deleted. “So I shortened it to Cardi B,” she said.

11 of 15

Lana Del Rey

Credit: Getty

Before making it big, Lana Del Rey, whose birth name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, went by a few names. Among them, per Far Out, were May Jailer, Sparkle Jump Rope Queen and Lizzy Grant.

By 2011, she had chosen Lana Del Rey right when her career started taking off. “I wanted a name I could shape the music towards,” she said of the inspiration. “I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba – Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.”

12 of 15

Drake

Drake at the UK premiere of ‘Top Boy’ in 2019.Credit: Getty Images

Much like many one-named stars, Drake, who was born Aubrey Drake Graham, dropped two of his three names when he started pursuing a career in music and rap. Before his rap career, Drake, who was a child actor on Degrassi: The Next Generation, was known as Aubrey Graham.

13 of 15

Portia de Rossi

Portia de RossiCredit: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage

Actress Portia de Rossi was born with a completely different name, Amanda Lee Rogers. In an interview of hers with Advocate, she explained that the name change was about much more than having a professional persona.

“In retrospect, I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay,” de Rossi said. “Everything just didn’t fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name.”

As a result, she started shopping around for names. Portia came from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, while de Rossi felt like “an exotic Italian name.” “When you live in Australia, Europe is so far away and so fascinating, so stylish and cultured and sophisticated,” she said.

14 of 15

Halsey

Halsey at the ‘Babygirl’ L.A. premiere in December 2024.Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images

Halsey, who was born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, got her name by rearranging the letters in her original name, and the fact that a friend of hers lived on Halsey Street. Most importantly, she changed her name to let go of the expectation she and the people around her had for her, and to set herself apart entirely.

“I think I had the foresight to know that being me wasn’t enough,” Halsey told Cosmopolitan in 2020. “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.”

She continued by explaining that her new persona “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.” While Ashley had limitations, Halsey “could do everything.”

15 of 15

Whoopi Goldberg

Credit: Getty Images

Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg got her stage name from the most unexpected of places. She was born Caryn Johnson, but soon took on Goldberg when pursuing acting.

“I am Caryn but I was a bit of a farter!” she said on The Graham Norton Show in 2017, per Hello! “The theatres I was performing in were very small, so if you were gassy you had to walk away farting and people would say I was like a Whoopee cushion. I was sometimes quite noisy, never offensive!”

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