Celebrities Changing Their Names: For Better or for Worse?

Abstract

Many individuals experience an uneasiness with their first or last names as they grow up. In some cases their names have led to embarrassing moments forcing them to consider new or other names. When individuals start performing in the entertainment world, whether as film stars, actors, musicians, or singers, and realize that they are ‘emerging’ celebrities, many think that another more appropriate name might count in their favor, propelling their careers. The purpose with this contribution is to investigate the types of changes that occur, the possible reasons for doing so, and the responsible name changers. The celebrities are mostly English speaking.

Keywords:

• celebrities
• name changing
• types of change
• English speaking countries
• assessment of change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Please note that all Wikipedia websites on celebrities were consulted but are not listed below.

Other websites consulted:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/celebrities-changed-names

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9447524

www.noisemademedoit.com/real-names-of-musicians

www.famousnamechanges.net/html/sports.htm

www.wonderwall.com/celebrity/profiles/celebs-who-changed-their-name

www.imdb.com/list/l5003280390/

www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/celebrities-who-have-changed-their-names

www.hollywood.com/celebrities-who-changed-their-names

www.lifebuzz.com/name-change

www.stylecaster.com/celebrities-real-names

www.findlaw.com/marriage/how-to-legally-change-your-name.html

https://wikipedia.org.wiki/name_change

www.wikihow.com/Legally-Change-Your-Name

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/10-things-no-one-tells-you-before-you-change-your-name-by-Bowser

https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Simmons

Wikipedia-Gene_Simmons,op.cit

https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sheen

https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_(singer)

https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Garland

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bertie Neethling

Bertie Neethling is an Honorary Research Professor at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), South Africa, in the Faculty of Arts and Design. His main focus is on Onomastics. In 2017 he produced a book with the title Onomastics – A Multidisciplinary Field of Study (LAP).