Start with:
Italo Calvino, the author
François Truffaut, the director
America Ferrara, the actress
Akaturk probably doesn’t count, seeing as he was renamed after his country…
Does america Hoffman count?
Jomo Kenyatta?
Not named after her own country but Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger called one of their kids Ireland. A girl IIRC.
Silly name but celebs are know for that kind of thing.
Not a celebrity per se, but there is the game designer American McGee
Cuba Gooding.
Asia Carrera
China Lee
India Allen
india.arie
France Nuyen
Gary “U.S.” Bonds
How about Morocco Mole?
Ozzie Nelson?
Asia Argento
I’m going to expand the theme to include states and maybe cities.
Africa Bambaata and
Jello Biafra, musicians; I don’t think either are from those places.
Utah Phillips, folk singer/raconteur, came from Utah and was first called that in the Army.
Sippie Wallace, blues singer, was from Mississipi.
Rudy Wanderone, pool hustler, was widely known as New York Fats. The movie The Hustler had a pool hustler named Minnesota Fats, based on NYF. Wanderone changed his moniker to Minnesota Fats, and was known as that ever since.
Grace Slick’s daughter China is from the US.
Yank Rachell, blues mandolinist/singer, is from Indianapolis in the US.
Tampa Red, blues singer, is from Tampa.
Panama Jack and Hong Kong Phooey are fictional, so we don’t know where they came from.
Writer Sir Walter Scott was from Scotland.
Anatole France
Actors Canada Lee, (born in New York), Jill Ireland (British) and John Ireland (Canadian)
John Denver
Bob Denver
Denver Pyle
Gomer Pyle…what?
According to Genesis, Jacob was born in the Holy Land (25:26) and God later changed his name to Israel (35:10).
A few negatives to omit from potential lists:
[ul][li]Herman “Germany” Schaeffer, only man ever to legally steal first base in a Major League Baseball game, was born in Chicago, IL.[/li][li]Rosa Luxembourg was born in Zamosc, Poland.[/li][li]Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City.[/li][li]St. Marinus (AKA San Marino) was born in Caesarea, Palestine.[/li][li]Eric Dane, supporting actor on numerous TV series, was born in San Francisco CA.[/li][li]Music promoter Ruth Polsky was from New Jersey.[/li][li]“Rudi Deutsch” is a name applied to two people. The Dutch author of that name was born in the Netherlands; Rudi Dutschke, the Marxist German activist who adopted the name, was born in Denmark.[/li]Baseball pitcher Eric Ireland was born in Long Beach, CA.[/ul]
Dane Cook is also not Danish.