There are many reasons why a celebrity will change their name or choose a completely different stage name than the one they were born with. Most often they’ll change names to stand out from the crowd, and have a more memorable name.
Before their fame, P!nk was Alecia Beth Moore and Macklemore was Benjamin Haggerty. Rapper Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, and you might just be a fan of Peter Gene Hernandez, also known as Bruno Mars.
So what do Aubrey Drake Graham and Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio have in common? Over 40 billion streams on Spotify. Drake used his original name in his Degrassi days, but chose to go by his middle name “Drake” when he entered the music arena. Doing this distanced his music persona from his popular character, Jimmy Brooks. Now Drake enjoys an unbelievable all time number of streams of 50.9 billion. But who is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio? None other than Bad Bunny, who comes in number two at 45.8 billion streams. Don’t forget The Weeknd, a.k.a. Abel Makkonen Tesfaye with 35.5 billion streams to date.
Superfans know Lady Gaga’s real name is Stefani Joanne Germanotta. Another one of the most famous singers of all time is Madonna, who regularly fights to remain relevant and does so! Madonna’s real name is Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. She is in the group of artists who kept either their first or middle name and turned it into a mononym – a pseudonym made of just one word. Of course, Prince Rogers Nelson started out as the mononym Prince but then became a symbol and then returned to Prince again. Other superstars using just their first or second name include Rihanna (Robin Rihanna Fenty) and Khalid (Khalid Donnel Robinson). Ozuna actually uses his third name (Juan Carolos Ozuna Rosado).
Billie Eilish goes by her first two names (her full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell). Lorde has a similarly long name, Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O’Connor. Post Malone, nee Austin Richard Post, goes by his last name and used a random “rap name generator” to come up with Malone.
Nikki Minaj uses her nickname, her formal name is Onika Tanya Minaj. Katy Perry kept the nickname for her real first name Katheryn Hudson but changed her last name so it would not be confused with the already-known actress Kate Hudson. Another diva with a different name is Cardi B, who was born Belcalis Almanzar.
Cats and Dogs and Mice, Oh My!
Doja Cat’s real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Diamini while Snoop Dogg’s real name is Calvin Cordoza Broadus, Jr. There’s even a mouse, sort of: superstar music producer Deadmau5 is called Joel Thomas Zimmerman by his friends and family. As you can see, the use of pseudonyms have become less utilitarian and more interesting to catch those clicks and streams.
Mallory Moss is the co-founder of BabyNames.com and co-host of The Baby Names Podcast. Mallory has a PhD in psychiatric nursing and has written articles for The Huffington Post on names and name trends. She has one grown daughter, Veronica, who lives in Austria.
