25 Celebrities Who Don't Use Their Real Names: Blake Lively, Lana Del Rey, Nicolas Cage and More

Born Blake Ellender Brown, Blake Lively starred in Sandman at 10 years old. She has continuously used Lively, which is her mother's surname.

During a WIRED Autocomplete Interview, Lively's A Simple Favor costar Anna Kendrick asked her how she got her first name.

"My grandmother's brother was named Blake. But he was murdered. So thanks for asking, Google," she responded, resonating with what she told Radio Free Entertainment in 2006.

Bruno Mars revealed to Rap Up how he got the name and decided to use it instead of his real name, Peter Gene Hernandez.

"Bruno is after Bruno Sammartino, who was this big, fat wrestler. I was this chunky little baby, so my dad used to call me that as a nickname. Mars came up because a lot of girls say I'm out of this world!" he explained.

Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez, but he opted not to use his birthname to help him in his career. However, he changed his name back for his credit in Machete Kills to honor his father.

"One of my great regrets is that I didn't keep my name as it was given to me. I knew it bothered my dad," Sheen told Inside the Actors Studio in 2003.

On November 11, 1962, Demi Moore's mother, Virginia, gave birth to her. Her biological father, Charles Harmon Sr., left them before she was born, so the General Hospital actress was named Demi Gene Guynes instead after Virginia married a man named Dan Guynes.

When she married Freddy Moore in 1980, Demi decided to use his last name and keep it even after their divorce.

Born Chloe Celeste Hoffman, Dove Cameron legally changed her name to "Dove" to pay tribute to her late father.

"He passed away when I was 15, and I decided to legally change it. So it's on my passport — everything legal is Dove," she told StyleWatch.

The Hunger Games actress Elizabeth Banks chose the stage name since her legal name, Elizabeth Mitchell, was already taken when she joined the Screen Actor's Guild.

At 16, Emma Stone decided to change her name from Emily to Emma because another actor with the same name was registered in the SAG. However, during the Kinds of Kindness press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, she smiled brightly when a reporter asked a question for "Emily Stone."

She previously told The Hollywood Reporter that her close friends and costars do not refer to her using her stage name.

Frank Ocean, born Christopher Edwin Breaux, initially used Lonny Breaux as his stage name when he signed his first contract in 2005. He adopted his current moniker, inspired by Frank Sinatra and his film Ocean's 11, in 2015.

"For me, the genesis of that name change came from me trying to make a project without my label knowing about it. It was born from a need," he told Essence.

The "White Ferrari" singer added, "I hear certain people say that about their name, their look, even their sound, that it's a form of armor or a shield from whatever pain they might not want to feel. I don't think that was it, though. I was just trying to be slick, so I could do what I was doing without people knowing. And it worked."

Jamie Foxx changed his name from Eric Marlon Bishop to his current stage name during his stand-up days. He reportedly started using "Foxx" as a tribute to Red Foxx, who died in October 1991 following a heart failure.

Speaking with MTV in 2008, John Legend opened up about the story behind the stage name and why he opted to use it instead of his real name, John Roger Stephens.

"John Legend is a nickname that some friends started calling me, and it kind of grew into my stage name," he told the outlet. "It grew to the point where more people in my circle would know me by that name than by my real name."

Jonah Hill decided to drop his family name, Feldstein, and use his middle name at the beginning of his career.

In 2022, TMZ shared the legal documents showing the Superbad actor requesting the court to change his name and allow him to officially go by his stage name.

Julianne Moore created the moniker from Julie Anne Smith using her other family members' names.

"My father's middle name is Moore; my mother's name is Anne. So I just slammed the Anne onto the Julie. That way I could use both of their names and not hurt anyone's feelings," she informed The New York Times. "But it's horrible to change your name. I'd been Julie Smith my whole life, and I didn't want to change it."

Born Katheryn Hudson, the "Dark Horse" singer started using Katy Perry — Perry is her mother's maiden name — to avoid being mistaken for Kate Hudson. Still, she released her self-titled first album under her birth name.

From Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanott, Lady Gaga constructed the stage name based on a comment from her music producer, Robert Fusari.

She told Flybe in 2010 that Fusari said her she reminded him of Queen's song, "Radio Ga Ga."

Lana Del Rey settled with the stage name after using different monikers, including Sparkle Jump Rope Queen and May Jailer, before rising to fame. The "Summertime Sadness" singer, born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, reportedly chose her current stage name after realizing she "wanted a name that sounded sort of exotic and reminded me of like the seaside on the Floridian coast."

"Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue," she told British Vogue in 2011.

The "Video Games" singer also reportedly found inspiration from actress Lana Turner and the Brazil-produced car Ford Del Rey.

Meg Ryan, born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra, started using her grandmother's maiden name, "Ryan," when she joined the SAG.

Hannah and Her Sisters star Michael Caine, who retired from acting after seven decades, adopted the stage name after being inspired by a The Caine Mutiny poster. Before becoming famous, he also used the stage name Michael Scott, which was far from his birth name, Maurice Joseph Micklewhite.

Natalie Portman chose the moniker to protect her privacy, so she used her grandmother's surname, Portman. However, her classmates in school upset her when she was younger when they began calling her using her stage name.

"I was like, if you know me, you know me as Natalie 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," she told Vanity Fair.

Portman added, "I felt like it was not accepting that both were part of me, that there wasn't a 'real' me and a 'pretend' me, and that they didn't necessarily have different names. And it's not just two different versions, there are multitudes of ways other people see me, both public and private, and there are multitudes of ways I see myself."

As the nephew of award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola, Nicolas Cage chose to create his own path. He decided to act under his current stage name instead of Nicholas Kim Coppola.

Nina Dobrev shortened her birthname, Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva, when she started her career.

After acting in a play by Oscar Wilde in school, Olivia Jane Cockburn changed her last name and started acting under the moniker Olivia Wilde.

Queen Latifah updated her name from Dana Elaine Owens due to a trend in their neighborhood.

"Latifah has been my nickname since I was 8," she revealed to Parade. "When I signed my first contract at Tommy Boy Records when I was 17, [the executive] was like, 'What would you like to be known as professionally?' My crew and I tested a lot of names. There was MC Latifah and Latifah Love."

The Equalizer star added, "We landed on 'Queen' because it defied a lot of the rampant misogyny going on in hip-hop at the time. I knew I could make that work."

Before joining Hollywood, Vin Diesel had already changed his name from Mark Sinclair for his work as a New York City bouncer. He shared during his appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that he got "Diesel" from his friends who said he was always full of energy.

In 2006, Whoopi Goldberg told The New York Times that the whoopee cushion and her mother's maiden name helped her create her stage name.

Winona Ryder's real name is Winona Laura Horowitz. She changed her last name following her appearance in Lucas as she was inspired by rock singer Mitch Ryder.