60+ celebrities that actually have different real names

Real name: Marshall Bruce Mathers III

His stage name Eminem was a play on words of his initials, M&M, which he later started writing phonetically as Eminem.

Real name: Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra

Entertainment Weekly say the actor shortened her first name and adopted her grandmother's maiden name when she joined the Screen Actors Guild at the start of her career.

Real name: Sarah Caroline Olivia Colman

Speaking to The Independent in 2013, Olivia explained the UK actors' union already had a registered Sarah Colman, so she swapped out for her middle name. "One of my best friends at university was called Olivia and I always loved her name," she explained.

Real name: Jacques Bermon Webster II

Fans say his stage name is inspired by his uncle's first name (Travis) combined with the first name of one of his inspirations, Kid Cudi (name is Scott Mescudi).

Real name: Adele Laurie Blue Adkins

The singer we've always known simply as Adele actually has a whole lot more names that she doesn't use professionally.

Real name: Ashley Frangipane

Speaking to Cosmopolitan US about changing their name as a teenager, Halsey explained, "At the time, I felt that Ashley didn’t deserve to be famous and successful because [they] weren't that special, but if I made Halsey, maybe could be."

"[Changing my name] gave me the opportunity to create a new persona that 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. I created a person, and she could do everything. There was no way that Ashley was going to become a king, but I made a new name for myself and took her to paranormal, supernatural heights."

Born: Belcalis Almanzar

The inspiration for Cardi's stage name came from the rum, Bacardi. "My sister's name is Hennessy," Cardi B explained to Jimmy Fallon. "So everyone used to call me Bacardi, and I started calling myself Bacardi, which eventually was shorted to Cardi B."

Real name: Abel Makkonen Tesfaye

During a Reddit AMA, the singer revealed the meaning behind his stage name. "I left home when I was about 17 dropped out of high school and convinced Lamar to do the same lol," he said, referring to a member of his crew. "We grabbed our mattresses from our parents threw it in our friends shitty van and left one weekend and never came back home. It was gonna be the title of HOB [House of Balloons]. I hated my name at the time though so I tried it as a stage name. It sounded cool. I took out the "e" because there was already a Canadian band named The Weekend (copyright issues)."

Real name: Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao

It wasn’t until Camila auditioned for The X Factor, at 15, that she chose to change her name. “They asked if I wanted a stage name, and I said Camila because I hated my name," she told The Guardian. "I hated Karla. It was like this rebirth. I got to create myself again. I was Camila, and then suddenly I didn’t have to be this shy girl in the classroom.”

Real name: Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva

Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, but fans know her as Nina Dobrev. Apparently, she decided to change her name when she began acting, as she thought it would be easier for people to remember and pronounce.

Real name: Amanda Leigh Moore

The This Is Us actress shortened Amanda to Mandy, explaining that Amanda made her think of her parents being angry with her. "I had never really owned my name," Mandy Moore explained in a 2009 interview with CNN. "It was just synonymous with my parents being mad at me."

Real name: Olivia Cockburn

Surprise! Olivia actually changed her name to be modelled on the Irish poet Oscar Wilde early on in her acting and writing career. At the time, I was doing The Importance of Being Earnest—I was playing Gwendolen, and I was so in love with it," she told The Observer. "Oscar Wilde is someone who I respect for so many reasons—a revolutionary, a comedian, and a profound thinker. I had all these reasons. But what I didn't foresee is that people would think of it as a sexy adjective. So now it's got a pornographic quality I never considered."

Real name: Joaquín Rafael Bottom

Phoenix's parents ditched the last name Bottom and reinvented themselves as the Phoenix family in 1979.

Real name: Christopher Edwin Breaux

In a 2011 Complex interview, he explained the name change: "It just felt cool. None of us are our names. If you don't like your name, then change your name."

He also legally changed his name to Christopher Francis Ocean in 2014.