# Performers who kept their names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697 "2021-11-21T01:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/41 "2021-11-22T02:41:46Z")
That’s what I figured was being referenced ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/42 "2021-11-22T03:03:08Z")
Something else is tickling my memory about H.G. Wells being a woman in a different story but I’m drawing a blank. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/43 "2021-11-22T03:07:17Z")
Michael Caine changed his name from Maurice Mickelwhite to Michael Caine only in 2016. I believe this decision was made to avoid confusion with border control officials, most of whom expected to find the name Michael Caine on his passport. Not a lot of people know that. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/44 "2021-11-22T03:17:06Z")
And named after the IWW songwriter, cartoonist, and martyr ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/45 "2021-11-22T03:39:10Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > Michael Caine changed his name from Maurice Mickelwhite to Michael Caine only in 2016. I believe this decision was made to avoid confusion with border control officials, most of whom expected to find the name Michael Caine on his passport. > > Not a lot of people know that. No didn’t know that. I looked and saw when he was knighted it was under his birth name. The internet shows that his two daughters use Caine but I have no idea if it’s legal or not. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/46 "2021-11-22T04:10:40Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > That’s what I figured was being referenced For the record, I was just making a silly joke about the author (who was a man). I never watched _Warehouse 13_ and was unaware there was a female character named H.G. Wells. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/47 "2021-11-22T15:15:35Z")
When I was young and stupid(er), I wondered why, after writing his own songs for years, in the mid-80s Elvis Costello started singing a bunch of songs written by Declan McManus. I thought maybe it was one of those Elton John/Bernie Taupin things. Elvis/Declan did, I believe, legally change his name to “Elvis Costello” early on, but in the 80s legally changed it back. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/48 "2021-11-22T16:17:09Z")
The H.G. Wells example is instructive. Men also use initials in their pen name. W. Awdry (of the _Thomas the Tank Engine_ books, though it he did include “The Rev.” in the name), for example. Science fiction author E. C. Tubb was another. And, of course, C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. It was also common in academia: e.g., A.J.P. Taylor. I once did a quick survey of names that appeared in early SF pulp magazines, and, for authors I could find gender information, male names with initials were about as common as female names with initials. Also, women were often published in the pulps with their real names (especially _Weird Tales_, which had one or two women writers in every issue in the early 20s). Claire Winger Harris was a regular in _Amazing_ at that time. Of those I discovered, only one – C. L. Moore – used initials. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/49 "2021-11-22T16:28:51Z")
Stage names are so common as to be barely noticeable, even in cases where the original name was fine. Emma Stone is actually Emily Stone, for instance. The champ for keeping one’s name has to be Arnold Schwartzenegger. Oddly, Evan Rachel Wood goes by her entire birth name, and yet she apparently really dislikes her first name. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/50 "2021-11-22T16:30:42Z")
Though, I think the OP’s question really was, “examples of performers who adopted stage names, but never changed their legal name to match the stage name.” (Otherwise, there are tons of performers who have always used their birth names.) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/51 "2021-11-22T18:22:13Z")
Right. A lot of people who take stage names also change it legally because it makes a lot of things more convenient. Some don’t feel the need. The thread is about the later. For some it’s pretty difficult to see for certain if they have changed it legally or not like Tom Cruise. Others were very open about going by their birth name (and then changing it later in the case of Michael Caine). I don’t put performers like Meryl Streep in the same category. She was born Mary Streep but was always called Meryl from childhood on. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/52 "2021-11-22T18:34:20Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > There is also a somewhat popular author who writes as Joe Hill (his middle name being Hillström) because he did not want people to think he was only Joe King. If anyone didn’t catch that, he was “only” Joe King… the son of Stephen and Tabitha. In an intro to Full Throttle, he says he wanted to make it on his own merits (or, as it happened, _not_ make it, for years…). But he regrets shortening his middle name… “I could’ve been writing stories with an UMLAUT in my name!” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/53 "2021-11-22T18:51:58Z")
Harry Stubbs wrote under the name Hal Clement, but writing was only part of his life, so he kept the name Stubbs for real-life activities (though he used a different pseudonym for his art work (George Richard). I mention this, because at a convention I heard him talk about an **in** convenience of keeping his birth name for most purposes - when he was invited to be the Guest of Honor for conventions, he needed to remind the convention to buy his airline tickets for Harry Stubbs, since that was the name on his ID (I got the impression that he made this reminder because of an unfortunate past incident, but I could be wrong) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/54 "2021-11-22T19:52:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@Andy\_L](#): > > > > Among authors there are many who write under a slightly different name then their legal name. > > There used to be a convention for female authors to use their initials because publishers didn’t think readers would buy books written by women. Examples are J.K. Rowling, C.L. Moore, S.E. Hinton, P.D. James, E. Nesbit, A.L. Kennedy, P.L. Travers, A.M. Homes, S.E. Lister, K.A. Applegate, E.H. Young, H.G. Wells There was also Dorothy C. Fontana, the scriptwriter and story editor for _Star Trek_, who for years wrote under her initials, D. C. Fontana, because it was harder for women to break into television writing in the 50s and 60s. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/55 "2021-11-23T00:48:31Z")
Mark Twain seems to have never changed his legal name - his wife and all his children were named Clemens. Though TBF that seems to be true for most writers of his era, so perhaps it doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/56 "2021-11-23T01:25:05Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > And named after the IWW songwriter, cartoonist, and martyr I dreamed I saw him last night, alive as you and me. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/57 "2021-11-23T01:33:21Z")
As I understand it, Joe Hill ain’t dead, Joe Hill never died. In fact, he’s been sighted from San Diego to Maine ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/58 "2021-11-23T01:37:12Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > One of the first instances I can recall of an actor having an unusual real name and keeping it professionally was Joanne Pflug. She had her first big role around the same time as Carrie Snodgress (“Diary of a Mad Housewife”). ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/59 "2021-11-23T03:15:55Z")
[From his 2018 obituary:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bradford-dillman-multifaceted-and-prolific-actor-of-stage-and-screen-dies-at-87/2018/01/19/37bbc7d4-fd25-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html) “ **Bradford Dillman** was the actor’s real name. He said “Bradford Dillman sounded like a distinguished, phony, theatrical name – so I kept it.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697/60 "2021-11-23T04:36:52Z")
Author Richard Bachman kept his birth name as his legal name throughout his career and even released some works under his birth name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/performers-who-kept-their-names/954697.md?page=4)