Harry Houdini named himself after a famous French magician named Robert-Houdin - but today Houdini is far more famous. Are there other examples of this happening.
Note: this has to be a self-given name - Martin Luther King, Jr. is more famous than his father, but that doesn’t count!
Engelbert Humperdinck is the first one to come to mind for me; the singer is starting to fade from memory, but I think he’s still more famous than the German composer whose name he stole.
Thank you. I should have recalled E. H. (the second one)
The same goes for David Copperfield the magician, who probably had much more name recognition at his peak than the Dickens character.
David Jones changed his last name to Bowie. I would say he’s probably more famous than James.
Except in Texas
Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg changed her name to that of one of Henry VIII’s queens. I’m not sure which Jane Seymour is more famous these days, but during the run of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, I’m pretty sure the modern actress was more famous in America.
Tom Jones was a singer under his birth name (Thomas Jones Woodward) but after the 1963 film he adopted the stage name Tom Jones. While the film and the novel it was based on isn’t forgotten, I suspect most people would think of the singer first.
I think Bob Dylan is better known than Dylan Thomas these days. I imagine more people can name a Dylan song then a Thomas poem anyway.
Though he was not technically named for his father, they both changed their name to Martin Luther King when MLK Jr was five. So I think he does count
He changed his name because of the popularity of Davy Jones of the Monkees.
Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.
But, yeah, a Dylan song would be easier…unless you’re a Millennial or younger? Seems that I see a lot of Millennials who don’t know his music at all.
Excuse me. That would be Arkansas.
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I can’t decide if Davy Jones was more famous as a locker or a Monkee
Very tenuous one. Just maybe, at the very height of his fame, Marilyn Manson was more famous in some circles than Marilyn Monroe or Charles Manson?
Also do regions count? I’d definitely say Jello Biafra is more famous than the break away region of Nigeria or the associated civil war.
Not more famous than Jello, though.
Franz Ferdinand?
This probably doesn’t count either, but the late Tupac Shakur, born Lesane Parish Crooks, was renamed at age 1 in honor of the 18th-c. Peruvian neo-Incan rebel leader Túpac Amaru II. I’m pretty sure the rapper was and even still is much better known than his namesake.
Another mom-renaming that stuck: Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. was nicknamed “Snoopy” after the Peanuts cartoon character he loved, and he kept it in his stage name Snoop Dogg. Now, I doubt that the rapper is actually more famous than the original Snoopy, but I’m sure there are a lot of fans who are more familiar with the former than the latter.
And another famous rapper, born Stanley Kirk Burrell, was nicknamed “Hammer” in his teens by the Oakland Athletics players he worked with, because he was thought to resemble renowned right fielder Hank Aaron (“Hammerin’ Hank” or “The Hammer”). I expect nowadays MC Hammer is better known than Hank Aaron.
Michael Caine took his stage name from The Caine Mutiny. He’s probably a bit more well known than the movie, now.
If bands count there are few contenders…
Jethro Tull has at some point been more famous than their namesake inventor