"I was looking through-I can't remember if it was a phone book... And I went, 'Oh, that sounds reasonable," Keaton recently recalled of choosing his stage name.
For as long as most can remember, stage names have been a common practice in Hollywood. Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm) changed her moniker to appear more theatrical. Elton John (a.k.a. Reginald Kenneth Dwight) ditched his legal name in his 20s in hopes of standing out from the crowd. Katy Perry tweaked her surname (Katheryn Hudson) to avoid being confused with actress Kate Hudson. Even Reese Witherspoon opted to drop her first name, Laura Jeanne, in favor of her mother's maiden name before she broke onto the scene.
But lately, we've seen a rise in mega-successful stars ditching the names that made them famous. On Jan. 31, The Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye) released his album Hurry Up Tomorrow, which marked the end of his After Hours trilogy and his pseudonym. "It's a headspace I've gotta get into that I just don't have any more desire for," Tesfaye says of ditching The Weeknd persona. "It becomes this rat race: more accolades, more success, more shows, more albums, more awards and more No. 1s. It never ends until you end it."
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1494518166/1739968520/articles/i1DoLo3KX1740051690218/0140774707.jpg]
In November, Ariana Grande made headlines when her name appeared different in the credits of her Oscar-nominated film Wicked: Ariana Grande-Butera. "You know, that was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old," she explained of her decision to go by her birth name. "It felt like a really lovely way of honoring that."
According to Gail Saltz, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, a star's decision to change their name can have deep meaning. "[It can] harken back to the time they had all these dreams and desires to be who they [later] became," Saltz tells Us, adding that "in this age of a lot of misinformation, there's a desire for truth for many. Hence, I think some celebrities, particularly already having made it, want to be their true selves and recoup their birth name."
That seems to ring true with Emma Stone. While attending the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Stone - who began going by Emma (a nod to her f...
For as long as most can remember, stage names have been a common practice in Hollywood. Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm) changed her moniker to appear more theatrical. Elton John (a.k.a. Reginald Kenneth Dwight) ditched his legal name in his 20s in hopes of standing out from the crowd. Katy Perry tweaked her surname (Katheryn Hudson) to avoid being confused with actress Kate Hudson. Even Reese Witherspoon opted to drop her first name, Laura Jeanne, in favor of her mother's maiden name before she broke onto the scene.
But lately, we've seen a rise in mega-successful stars ditching the names that made them famous. On Jan. 31, The Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye) released his album Hurry Up Tomorrow, which marked the end of his After Hours trilogy and his pseudonym. "It's a headspace I've gotta get into that I just don't have any more desire for," Tesfaye says of ditching The Weeknd persona. "It becomes this rat race: more accolades, more success, more shows, more albums, more awards and more No. 1s. It never ends until you end it."
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1494518166/1739968520/articles/i1DoLo3KX1740051690218/0140774707.jpg]
In November, Ariana Grande made headlines when her name appeared different in the credits of her Oscar-nominated film Wicked: Ariana Grande-Butera. "You know, that was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old," she explained of her decision to go by her birth name. "It felt like a really lovely way of honoring that."
According to Gail Saltz, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, a star's decision to change their name can have deep meaning. "[It can] harken back to the time they had all these dreams and desires to be who they [later] became," Saltz tells Us, adding that "in this age of a lot of misinformation, there's a desire for truth for many. Hence, I think some celebrities, particularly already having made it, want to be their true selves and recoup their birth name."
That seems to ring true with Emma Stone. While attending the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Stone - who began going by Emma (a nod to her f...
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