17 Stars Who Legally Changed Their Names
The name on your birth certificate doesn’t have to be the name the world knows you by. For decades, entertainers have swapped their given names for something snappier, more memorable, or simply more “them.”
Some did it for their careers. Others did it to escape a past. A few just thought their real names were too long to fit on a marquee.
Here are 17 celebrities who made it official.
1. Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is a mouthful by any measure. She legally adopted the name Lady Gaga — inspired by the Queen song “Radio Ga Ga” — early in her career and has gone by it ever since.
The transformation wasn’t just about branding. It marked a complete reinvention of who she was on stage and, eventually, who she became off it too.
2. Bruno Mars
Born Peter Gene Hernandez in Honolulu, Hawaii, he picked up the nickname “Bruno” as a toddler because his family thought he looked like the professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino. The “Mars” part came later — he wanted something that felt larger than life, and he thought no one would take a short, chubby kid seriously with the name Peter.
The gambit worked.
3. Katy Perry
Her real name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson. She dropped it to avoid being confused with actress Kate Hudson, which is a reasonable concern when you’re trying to build a music career.
“Katy Perry” came from her mother’s maiden name. The stage name stuck, and she’s since sold hundreds of millions of records under it.
4. Miley Cyrus
Destiny Hope Cyrus was her name at birth — given in the hope that she would find her purpose in life. Her family called her “Smiley” as a baby, which eventually got shortened to “Miley.”
She had it legally changed to Miley Ray Cyrus when she was a teenager. The “Ray” was added as a tribute to her grandfather.
5. Cardi B
Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar grew up in the Bronx. The nickname “Cardi B” came from Bacardi, the rum brand — because a cousin kept comparing her name to it.
She shortened it, kept the B, and turned it into one of the most recognizable names in hip-hop. The legal change made it permanent.
6. Whoopi Goldberg
Caryn Elaine Johnson chose her stage name early in her career, reportedly because she was gassy on stage and wanted a name that made her laugh. The “Whoopee cushion” connection is part of the story.
She took “Goldberg” from her Jewish heritage on her mother’s side. She’s spoken about the name over the years with characteristic humor and no apology.
7. Vin Diesel
Mark Sinclair grew up in New York and picked up the name “Vin Diesel” as a teenager while working as a bouncer. He needed something that didn’t reveal his age and sounded tougher.
He took “Vin” from a shortened version of his mother’s maiden name. “Diesel” was chosen because people said he ran on pure energy. He legally adopted it and the rest is blockbuster history.
8. Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estévez took his father’s stage surname — Martin Sheen’s real name is Ramón Estévez — and ran with it professionally. Unlike his father, Charlie made the legal change official.
His brother Emilio Estévez, famously, did not.
9. Olivia Wilde
Olivia Jane Cockburn adopted the pen name “Wilde” as a teenager, inspired by her admiration for Oscar Wilde. She later made it her legal name.
It’s one of the more deliberate, literary name changes in Hollywood — less about marketability and more about personal identity and the writers she admired.
10. Natalie Portman
Born Neta-Lee Hershlag in Jerusalem, she moved to the United States as a child and adopted the stage name Natalie Portman — her grandmother’s maiden name — at the suggestion of her parents, who wanted to protect her privacy.
She was acting in films as a young teenager and the pseudonym gave her family a layer of separation from the public attention.
11. Ben Kingsley
Krishna Pandit Bhanji is his birth name. His father was Kenyan-Indian and his mother was British.
He adopted the stage name Ben Kingsley early in his career in English theater, reportedly because he thought it would be easier to cast. He was later knighted, making him Sir Ben Kingsley — a title attached to a name that isn’t technically the one he was born with.
12. Lorde
Ella Yelich-O’Connor was 16 when she released “Royals” and became a global phenomenon almost overnight. She chose “Lorde” as her stage name because she liked the aristocratic feel of “Lord” but wanted to add a feminine touch.
The name has since been legally adopted. She’s never really elaborated on the full decision — and that feels very on-brand.
13. Demi Moore
Born Demi Gene Guynes, she took the surname Moore from her first husband, rock musician Freddie Moore, when they married in the early 1980s.
She kept it even after they divorced, because by that point it was already attached to a rising career. The name stuck through multiple marriages and decades of film work.
14. Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj grew up in Trinidad before moving to New York. The stage name “Nicki Minaj” was a suggestion from an early manager who thought her given name was too hard to market.
She resisted at first, then adopted it. The “Minaj” is a phonetic play on her real surname “Maraj.” It’s one of those name changes that feels like a small tweak but ended up becoming one of the biggest brands in music.
15. Kesha
Kesha Rose Sebert officially dropped the dollar sign from her name — which had been styled as “Ke$ha” — and simplified it back to “Kesha” around 2014, during a difficult period in her career and personal life.
The change felt less like a rebrand and more like a reclaiming. She’s been clear that it represented a shift toward something more authentic.
16. Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach came to Hollywood from Bristol, England and reinvented himself completely. The name Cary Grant was assigned to him by the studio — he didn’t choose it himself initially — but he later adopted it legally and built one of the most iconic careers in cinema history under it.
He once joked about it, saying everyone wanted to be Cary Grant, including himself.
17. Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. became “Iggy” from a band called the Iguanas that he played with as a teenager. “Pop” came from a Detroit musician named Jim Pop.
He combined the two and eventually made Iggy Pop his legal name. It’s one of the more organically constructed celebrity names out there — built from actual pieces of his early life rather than invented for commercial purposes.
What’s In A Name, Anyway
There’s something quietly fascinating about the gap between who someone was born as and who they became. For some of these stars, the name change was a practical decision.
For others, it was the first act of self-definition — a way of saying, before anyone else did, that they got to decide who they were. The legal paperwork just made it real.
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