Jonah Hill Files Petition to Make His Stage Name Official

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Celebrities’ Real Names: Ashton Kutcher, Lady Gaga and More

It’s all in the name! It’s not uncommon for celebrities to use stage names in Hollywood, but some stars’ actual monikers may surprise you.

Take Ashton Kutcher, for example. While accepting the Ultimate Choice honor at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards, the That’s 70 Show alum turned entrepreneur admitted that he was actually named Chris — short for Christopher.

“In Hollywood, there’s a lot of insider secrets to keeping your career going and I feel like a fraud,” he said at the time. “My name in fact is not even Ashton — Ashton is my middle name. My first name’s Chris and it always has been. It got changed when I was about 19 and became an actor.”

The former Ranch star added, “There are some really amazing things I learned when I was Chris, and I wanted to share those things with you guys because I think it’s helped me be here today.”

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Funnily enough, Kutcher’s ex-wife, Demi Moore, and current wife, Mila Kunis, also go by different monikers in the public eye. The Ghost actress, born Demetria Gene Guynes, shortened her first name and adopted her first husband Freddy Moore’s surname. The Family Guy star, for her part, abbreviated her first name, Milena, to Mila when she started booking roles as a young actress.

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is actually Lady Gaga‘s legal name. Back in 2009, the Grammy winner explained her connection to her larger than life moniker.

“I’ve always been Gaga,” she told Rolling Stone. “I suppressed all those eccentricities about myself so I could fit in. Once I was free, I was able to be myself.”

Another star who wasn’t born the way we know them today is Jamie Foxx, whose name is Eric Marlon Bishop. Early in his standup career, the Soul star would choose androgynous names — including Stacy Brown, Traci Green and Jamie Foxx — so that he could get stage time since there were very few female comedians who signed up to perform at those events.

“Then I went on stage, I got a standing ovation. Because I was ‘fresh meat,’ where [regular comics] wanted a comedian to die [on stage], the amateur in between all the great ones,” he said during a 2018 interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “I got a standing ovation, and that’s when Jamie Foxx happened.”

Scroll through the gallery below to see which of your favorite celebrities go by a stage name.

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Jonah Hill

Real name: Jonah Hill Feldstein

In November 2022, the Superbad actor reportedly filed a petition to drop “Feldstein” as his last name, making his stage name “Hill” his legal surname. 

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Martin Sheen

Real name: Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez

The West Wing alum told Closer Weekly in June 2022 that changing his stage name from his Spanish immigrant father’s given name is “one of my regrets,” revealing that he has “never changed” the moniker officially. “It’s still Ramon Estévez on my birth certificate. It’s on my marriage license, my passport, driver’s license,” he explained. “Sometimes you get persuaded when you don’t have enough insight or even enough courage to stand up for what you believe in, and you pay for it later. But, of course, I’m only speaking for myself.”

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Tyler, the Creator

Real name: Tyler Okonma

His stage name came from his MySpace, which he created at 13 years old in 2004, but as an adult, the rapper has started to embrace his real name. He realized that the African name Okonma (pronounced, as the performer says, like “a coma”) is “pretty cool” and started using the credit on his album credits.

“My full name, Tyler Okonma, in all caps, just looks really cool,” the performer said in a December 2021 interview with Fast Company. “So you might see more of that, I don’t know. I’m getting older, and I think people get older, they start realizing s–t and liking things they didn’t like. You just start changing. I think my version of that is looking at my name and saying, ‘Oh, this is actually cool.'”

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Thandiwe Newton

Real name: Thandiwe Newton

The Westworld actress dropped the “w” in her first name while attending Catholic school in England. She went by Thandie Newton for nearly 30 years, until she reclaimed her birth name in April 2021, telling British Vogue, “That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine.” The actress explained that while starring in Flirting in 1991, she was incorrectly credited as Thandie and it stuck.

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Travis Scott

Real name: Jacques Berman Webster II

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Cardi B

Real name: Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar

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Calvin Harris

Real name: Adam Richard Wiles

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Vin Diesel

Real name: Mark Sinclair

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Mila Kunis

Real name: Milena Markovna Kunis

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Jack Black

Real name: Thomas Jacob Black

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Charlie Sheen

Real name: Carlos Irwin Estévez

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Demi Moore

Real name: Demetria Gene Guynes

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Julianne Moore

Real name: Julie Anne Smith

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Jay-Z

Real name: Shawn Corey Carter

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Reese Witherspoon

Real name: Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon

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Katy Perry

Real name: Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson

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Meg Ryan

Real name: Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra

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Tina Fey

Real name: Elizabeth Stamatina Fey

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Olivia Wilde

Real name: Olivia Jane Cockburn

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Ashton Kutcher

Real name: Christopher Ashton Kutcher

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Whoopi Goldberg

Real name: Caryn Elaine Johnson

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Carmen Electra

Real name: Tara Leigh Patrick

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Miley Cyrus

Real name: Destiny Hope Cyrus

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Nina Dobrev

Real name: Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva

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Shania Twain

Real name: Eilleen Regina Edwards

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Natalie Portman

Real name: Natalie Hershlag

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Helen Mirren

Real name: Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov

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Lady Gaga

Real name: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta

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Nicki Minaj

Real name: Onika Tanya Maraj

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Lorde

Real name: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor

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Pink

Real name: Alecia Beth Moore

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Bono and The Edge

Real names: Paul David Hewson and David Howell Evans

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Iggy Azalea

Real name: Amethyst Amelia Kelly

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Snoop Dogg

Real name: Calvin Cordozar Broadus

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Faith Hill

Real name: Audrey Faith Perry

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Jamie Foxx

Real name: Eric Marlon Bishop

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Marilyn Manson

Real name: Brian Hugh Warner

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Ozzy Osbourne

Real name: John Michael Osbourne

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Queen Latifah

Real name: Dana Elaine Owens

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Lana Del Rey

Real name: Elizabeth Woolridge Grant