I knew Snoop Doggy Dogg briefly through my cousin’s friends in Long Beach. This is when we were all, like, thirteen, the one summer I visited them. I called him Calvin because my auntie didn’t allow street nicknames like “Snoop Dogg” or ‘Lil Trey’ in her house.
Years later, my cousin called me up and told me that her friend Snoop Doggy Dogg was on Dr. Dre’s new album. Back then the only west coast rappers I paid much attention to was Digital Underground and NWA, so I was mildly impressed she knew someone who knew Dre – but I still didn’t make the Snoop = Calvin Broadus connection yet.
So: my sophomore year, I walked by the TV in the lobby where everybody was watching Dre’s “Nothing But G Thang” video. I do double take. “Yo, y’all. I know that skinny dude. That’s Calvin!”
Big ups in the dorm for weeks after that. Nigga never did answer my fan mail, though. Punkass. I’m glad Denzel went upside his head in Training Day.
Oh… I work with several teachers here in Columbus who knew Lil’ Bow Wow back when he was just Shad Moss.
As an obsessive U2 fan, I even have cites for what Bono uses. From U2 at the End of the World by Bill Flanagan, p 261:
And Bono’s father on the stage name, same book, p. 313:
Of course, since Bono’s father passed away a few years ago, there’s probably nobody left who calls him Paul any more, unless his brother does.
If there’s anything in there about what The Edge’s credit cards say or people in his family call him, I can’t find it on a quick flip through. It’s been a while since I read the book, I just happened to remember the Bono-related quotes well enough to be able to find them.
I was reading an interview with Dita Von Teese, the fiancee of Marilyn Manson, and she stated that no-one but his parents refers to him by his original name, Brian.
In a piece on Iggy Pop in (of all places) National Review, the writer noted with surprise that Iggy’s longtime pal David Bowie called him “Jim.” I assume that’s what he’s called by everyone who really knows him.
Going back a few years, John Denver’s real name was Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. But you could tell who REALLY knew him well, because old friends always called him “Dutch” (which was just short for his real last name).
Bear in mind, some celebs legally change their names, but many don’t. There’s no law against using multiple names in your life, provided that
a) there’s no intent to deceive anyone, and
b) you pay your taxes each year under your legal name.
So, if Joseph Schmeaux becomes an actor, he can adopt the name Lance Heartthrob without changing the name legally, and he may still be just plain “Joe” to his family and old friends. Or he may go all out and take legal measures to change his name to Lance Heartthrob.
But even if he never legally changes his name, it’s not that big a deal to get a credit card with whatever name he likes printed on it. As long as American Express knows who you really are and how much money you make, they’ll give you a card with practically any name you want on it.
Years ago, I heard Bono say that David Evans’ mother (who was their unofficial business manager in their early, struggling days) was always called “Mrs. Edge” by members of the band.
That’s interesting. I was reading an interview with Jenna Jameson (it was in Rolling Stone, really) and she told a story of hanging out with him and she referred to him as Brian throughout the story.
As regards another star, whenever I’ve heard Pam Anderson refer to Kid Rock as Bob (as in Bob Ritchie).
I was watching the Bret Hart documentary on A&E a while back, and, after Hart got screwed out of the title, his wife was backstage trying to find out who knew about the double-cross. You can clearly hear her call Paul Levesque “Hunter” (his wrestling name) at least once.
I recall a brief MTV news interview a few years ago in which Courtney Love referred to him as Brian. On the other hand, she was being interviewed because they were refusing to finish their tour together, so it’s possible she was calling him that to annoy him.
If you are backstage at a wrestling show, and you use the guys real names, you aren’t going to be very popular. They have a tendency to go by their working names all the time around the shows, and sometimes at home. I knew Randy Savage when I was a kid, and while his last name was Poffo, he went by Savage on almost everything. Signed for packages that way.
Meat Loaf was born Marvin Lee Aday, was nicknamed Meat Loaf by his father. According to his autobiography, he hated the name Marvin and refused to answer to it. A few years ago, he had his name legally changed to Michael Lee Aday. Prior to the legal name change, he signed offical documents as M. Lee Aday. And his wife has always called him “Bub.”
There are a number of celebrities whose real names are not terribly well-known. Natalie Portman comes to mind. I don’t know her real name, but she said in an interview way back when she was filming Beautiful Girls that she and her parents picked a stage name because she was so young and they were concerned about her losing her privacy.
Jamie Foxx picked his stage name fairly randomly - he wanted a name that sounded like it could be female, because booking agents for a particular comedy club were more prone to inviting female comics to audition. In his “real life” he still goes by Eric.
I read a Readers’ Digest article a few years ago about celebrity adoptions. Someone had questioned whether birth parents who find out their child has been adopted by a celebrity ever try to extort money from the celebs. A rep from one of the adoption agencies said that a large number of celebrities who adopt do so under their real names, so it would be unlikely that even if the birth parents got hold of the records, they’d be able to pin down exactly who had adopted their child. Which makes ME wonder if Nicole Kidman is listed on her childrens’ records as Nicole Mapother.
Re: Marilyn Manson, the relevent interview is here. He may have switched over completely recently, or perhaps just put up with being called “Brian” by Jameson and Love.
I wonder how many celebrities really switch over to their stage names? Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue was born Frank Ferrano, and AFAIK his children all have “Sixx” as their surnames. Jack White of the White Stripes was born John Gillis, but took Meg White’s surname when they married. Now that they’re divorced, I wonder if he’ll change it again if he ever remarries, or if his hypothetical future wife and children have “White” as their surname?
Teller the magician is known for two eccentricities; not talking and using only one name. The first is only a public display; he talks quite freely in private life. But he is serious about the name thing; born Raymond Joseph Teller, he had his name legally changed to just Teller and even has his driver license and passport issued with the one word name.