I can report from firsthand experience that Paul Stanley’s parents call him Paul, at least when talking with people outside the family. (He was born Stanley Paul Eisen, and was called by his first name growing up.)
Boris Karloff’s real name was William Henry Pratt. I recall hearing on Biography that he never legally changed his name to Boris Karloff and used his birth name on his identification and to sign contracts. I don’t recall whether his friends and family called him “Bill” or “Billy” or whether they actually called him “Boris.”
Damn! Me, of all people, should’ve not forgotten about him.
If i may hijack slightly (and it’s my own thread, so damn it I can), the notion that people “legally change their name” is not entirely correct. In Britain, and AIUI in many other jurisdictions, your legal name is whatever you choose to call yourself. If you decide that Maurice Micklewhite sounds stupid, and start to trade as Michael Caine instead, “Michael Caine” automatically becomes a legal name. No official procedure such as a deed poll is required by law, although in practice it helps a lot if there is some evidence of your going by the new name.
Don’t forget Woody Guthrie.
And Woody Hays.
Hulk Hogan’s mother still call him Terry. When others called him that, he would give them a stern look and a simple “Don’t call me that”. His driver’s license lists both his stage and real names.
He has claimed (sorry, no cite) that even she calls him Sting.
The difference between “legally changing your name” and “changing your name in a way you can force the bureaucracy to accept” is pretty slender, IMHO. In Canada (outside Quebec) theoretically the situation is the same, but you’re still going to have to pay that $15 or whatever if you expect to have any identification issued under that name, and without ID there are a lot of people who are going to tell you and your legal name to take a hike.
'Cause isn’t there where he got the name? From his mum–because of the black and yellow shirt he used to wear? I could be completely wrong, but that’s what comes to mind.
Sorry about that – I could’ve sworn I’d read his first name was “Woodrow”. My mistake.
???
I have no conception of what point you’re trying to make.
A friend of mine has catered parties at Joan Rivers’ home several times. He says that she politely asks to be addressed as “Mrs. Rosenberg” (her married name).
In the United States, a person is allowed to use any name he pleases, so long as there’s no fraudulent intent. However, if you want to use a new name other than casually, then you have to start persuading banks and government agencies and people signing contracts and such to start recognizing your new name. Often they will insist that the document reflects the name on your birth certificate unless you have an order from a court stating that your name change is legitimate.
When Americans speak about “legally” changing one’s name – whether one has had to court for it or not – it’s usually shorthand for the notion that you use the new name on documents like your driver’s license, passport, social security card, checks, and tax returns.
I think he’s trying to say that on occasion Woody Allen has, in the context of telling a joke, used a form of his name that might give one the impression that “Woody” is a diminutive of his legal name (when really it isn’t). In such cases, the name he has used is Heywood Allen, not Woodrow Allen.
Aha!
I’ve found references to “Woodrow Allen Konigsberg”, simply by searxching for it. Evidently I’m not the only person laboring under this misapprehension, which I evidently gleaned from some similarly misinformed site:
The Jewish United Fund, no less. You’d think they’d have it right.
So I wasn’t misremembering.
You got it. (Although I don’t know why he changed the spelling of Allan to Allen.)
The deeper point is that Woody just is. It’s not a nickname or a shortening of a standard name. It’s whole and complete in itself.
I just did a search and there do seem to be some people who believe that he formally changed his name to “Heywood Allen.” I wonder if anyone has seen his driver’s license or passport.
He probably just wanted to be like his idol, Mr. Jablome.
Faroukh Bulsara had pretty much everybody, all the time, except his parents, call him Freddie Mercury for most of his adult life.
Caveat: IIRC he legally changed his name early in the band’s career.
<hijack>
I recently read an article about an old-time comedian who was born Harry Einstein, but went by the name Harry Parke. (He famously died in Milton Berle’s lap at a Friar’s Club Roast.) Two of his three sons also became comedians: Bob Einstein, better known as Super Dave Osborne, and Albert Einstein, better known as Albert Brooks.
</hijack>
Right explanation, wrong person. Gordon got the nickname from a bandmate in his band prior to The Police, Last Exit. He wore a black and yellow jumper, and the guy thought he looked like a bee. So shouldn’t he be “Bee?”
If you were taking the mickey out of someone, you wouldn’t give them a cool nickname, would you? I’ll bet they called him Bee, and one day he was like, “A bee has a sting… call me that, would you?” 