14 Celebrities Who Changed Their Names and the Reasons Behind Each Decision

Even though the private lives of celebrities are widely discussed by the public, there are always certain details about them that we tend not to know. Seeing celebrities who have changed their own name is not exactly new, because in Hollywood, for example, this is not uncommon. There are those who decided to adopt the childhood nickname given by their parents at once, while others left in search of a stage name that sounded better.

We who do awesome.clubwe prepared a list of celebrities who changed their names, taking the opportunity to reveal the meaning behind each one of them.

Charlie’s decision to change his name from Carlos to Charlie stemmed from a simple desire to avoid confusion between himself and his uncle, also named Carlos. At the beginning of his career as an actor, he also decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and adopt his last name, Sheen.

In 2008, Miley Cyrus officially changed her name from Destiny Hope Cyrus to Miley Cyrus. The name Miley is a diminutive of her childhood surname, “Smiley” (which can be translated as “smiling”), in honor of the artist’s paternal grandfather.

Born Peter Gene Hernandez, he renamed himself, as revealed to Latina magazine.

“My father nicknamed me Bruno when I was 2 years old. I was going to adopt just ‘Bruno’, a unique name. The ‘Mars’ came about as a joke, as he gave the impression of being larger than life itself. It was like that, simple as that.”

Name changes are frequent in Hollywood. However, as surprising as it may seem, Michael Keaton did not change his name for some reason that you might imagine: he was forced to adopt another stage name in order to be accepted professionally as an actor, given that his given name was already used by a artist who, in the future, would be nominated for an Oscar.

The saying goes that less is more, and the actress seems to know it. Born Demetria Gene Guynes, she decided to shorten her name and adopt “Demi”. The star’s last name is a holdover from her first marriage, which was to famous singer Freddy Moore.

Perhaps you’ve already wondered what the “J” in Jessie J’s name means. Well, the artist’s birth name is Jessica Ellen Cornish. Basically, the “J” in her stage name stands for different things depending on the day and the singer’s mood. However, we know that among her favorite nicknames are “Jessie hands of Jazz” and “Jessie Jetlag”, the latter in reference to the sudden changes felt by the organism when the person travels to a place with a time zone very different from the place of departure.

Elsa Pataky is a Spanish model and actress best known for her role as Elena Neves in the Fast and Furious franchise. The famous full name is Elsa Lafuente Medianu, but she uses the last name Pataky in honor of her maternal grandmother: Rosa Pataky.

Wiz Khalifa’s family already knew that boy was born for success. Inspired by an uncle’s name, which means “knowledge” in Arabic, the rapper was born Cameron Jibril Thomaz. However, he adopted the name Wisdom (“wisdom”, in English). Later, his uncle added the Khalifa, which means “successor”, also in Arabic. Later, he shortened his name to “Wiz”, this when he was 15 years old and was called by his friends “young Wiz” all the time. After all, the artist was very “good at everything”.

Gene Simmons was born in Israel in 1949, immigrating to the USA with his mother when he was 8 years old. After arriving in New York, he adopted his mother’s maiden name, signing Eugene Klein. In the early 1970s, he changed his name again, becoming Gene Simmons.

Lorde changed her given name when she was 12 when she signed with Universal Music Group after a company agent spotted her singing at a school talent show. The idea of ​​royalty present in the name “Lord” motivated the artist to change her original name. Later, she added the letter “e” at the end because she thought “Lord” would be too masculine for a girl.

Larry King was born Lawrance Harvey Zeiger in Brooklyn, New York. The decision to change the name happened in the blink of an eye. With just a few minutes to go before his first live broadcast, he was warned that the person in charge of the radio considered his name “too ethnic”. Thus, the famous had to make a decision quickly, and that’s when the businessman saw the ad for a company based in Miami and called King’s Wholesale. Larry liked it right away, adopting “King” as his new last name.

Frank Ocean is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. His stage name is a combination of Frank Sinatra’s first name and the title of the 1960 film Ocean’s 11, starring Sinatra himself. In Brazil, the film is called Eleven Men and a Secret.

Professionally, Christopher Brian Bridges is known as Ludacris. In 2000, when he was interviewed on MTV’s Direct Effect hip hop program, Ludacris explained that his name was born from a play on the word “ludicrous” (“ridiculous”, in English”), giving rise to the stage name with which would become famous.

Marilyn renamed herself to gain a better sounding stage name. Thus, she officially abandoned Norma Jean Mortenson to become Marilyn Monroe, this in 1956. The star made the decision after Ben Lyon, a studio executive, suggested that she should choose something that sounded better. And so, the name Marilyn Monroe was born.

Did you have a nickname during childhood? What do you think about the idea of ​​adults officially adopting the nicknames they had when they were little?