# Why did actors stop using stage names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783 "2016-07-24T17:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/41 "2016-07-25T11:27:21Z")
Emma Stone. Another actor was registered as Emily Stone so she started her career as Riley Stone, then decided she was more comfortable with Emma. Rooney Mara dropped her first name, Patricia. Ralph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes whittled his name down a tad. Katherine Matilda Swinton ditched Kathy for Tilda. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/42 "2016-07-25T11:38:50Z")
Heh. Given all this talk of how performers sometimes try not to seem “ethnic”, consider Carmen Electra: that sounds kind of _Mediterranean,_ right? Like, kind of Greek, and kind of Italian? Or maybe Spanish? Yeah, that’s just the stage name of Ohio-born Tara Patrick, which is a name so blandly Irish that you’d think it couldn’t get more Irish – until you learn that she’s the daughter of Patricia Patrick. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/43 "2016-07-25T11:41:11Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Dunno if that’s why Tim Allen doesn’t act as Tim Dick, but I commend his choice. Maybe he didn’t want people thinking he was related to that other Dick (Andy)! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/44 "2016-07-25T12:02:30Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Maybe he didn’t want people thinking he was related to that other Dick (Andy)! 😛 Heh. Come to think of it, that reminds me of how Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning _do_ happen to be related – but their real names are Hannah Fanning and Mary Fanning. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/45 "2016-07-25T12:23:12Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Heh. Given all this talk of how performers sometimes try not to seem “ethnic”, consider Carmen Electra: that sounds kind of _Mediterranean,_ right? Like, kind of Greek, and kind of Italian? Or maybe Spanish? Yeah, that’s just the stage name of Ohio-born Tara Patrick, which is a name so blandly Irish that you’d think it couldn’t get more Irish – until you learn that she’s the daughter of Patricia Patrick. And that brought Portia de Rossi to mind, aka Amanda Rogers. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/46 "2016-07-25T12:37:50Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Some actors changed their names because their real name was already being used. Not just actors - Trace Adkins started using “Trace” instead of “Tracy” to distinguish himself from several other Tracys in country music. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/47 "2016-07-25T12:48:38Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I know there’s a million stories like this but no names were ever changed by officials at Ellis Island. You are really invested in “debunking” this myth, aren’t you? Consider “our name changed at Ellis Island” to be shorthand for “our name changed during the immigration process”. Also, Ellis Island was _not_ the only place where people entered, which seems to be another long-standing myth. There you have people like my father’s family which didn’t have surnames in the old country but acquired them either on the way or when they arrived here. We’ve occasionally said “our name changed at Ellis Island” when in fact, so far as the genealogists in my family can determine, _none_ of us ever came through Ellis Island on either side of the family. Would the average person recognize any of the other ports of entry? It’s often used as a shorthand, even by those of us who know better. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/48 "2016-07-25T13:10:26Z")
Coming back around, while it was a long time ago that Krishna Bhanji started acting under the stage name of Ben Kingsley, it was fairly recently that Kalpen Suresh Modi _“derived his acting name, [Kal Penn,](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal_Penn) as a lark: ‘Almost as a joke to prove friends wrong, and half as an attempt to see if what I was told would work (that anglicized names appeal more to a white-dominated industry), I put “Kal Penn” on my resume and photos.’ His audition callbacks rose by 50 percent. He has stated that he prefers his birth name and uses ‘Kal Penn’ only for professional purposes.”_ ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/49 "2016-07-25T15:31:34Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Dunno if that’s why Tim Allen doesn’t act as Tim Dick, but I commend his choice. He’s not the first. Back in the Sixties, when organist Paul Revere Dick started a rock band, he called it Paul Revere and the Raiders- not Paul Dick and the Raiders. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/50 "2016-07-25T15:47:47Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > He’s not the first. Back in the Sixties, when organist Paul Revere Dick started a rock band, he called it Paul Revere and the Raiders- not Paul Dick and the Raiders. Speaking of performers who took names out of the history book, Joyce Frankenberg is still acting long after she decided that Jane Seymour sounded “more salable”. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/51 "2016-07-25T16:39:42Z")
I wonder if Carlos Irwin Estévez is still “Winning!”. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/52 "2016-07-25T16:45:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Not just stage names, either. Lots of immigrants changed their last names to fit in better - sometimes, not entirely by choice. I used to have a friend whose grandfather showed up on Ellis Island with a last name that started with Vo-, followed by some improbable collection of Germanic consonants. The guy processing his paper work changed it to “Vote” and that’s been the family name ever since. False. No names were EVER changed at Ellis Island or other immigration points. All such stories are urban legend or family tales. Straight from a senior Ellis Island historian who made a very convincing case about how nonsensical the claims are. In a nutshell, all immigrants had to have written papers, so nonsense about not being able to understand accents is baloney. Law and regulation at the time did not allow customs agents to record and issue papers in anything but the documented name. All name changes came later, through either common use (a family simply calling themselves by a different name, in that generally ID-free era) or through legal application. But it make a nice story for families that are embarrassed about a difference of immigrant/family names that is now questionable. Not to say there weren’t errors, especially from handwritten documents. But the pervasive idea that either immigrants or officials changed their name at the immigration office is almost 100% nonsense. Especially the vaguely libertarian-angst version where officials changed names from laziness, prejudice or even malice. Go ahead, ask Ellis Island info about it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/53 "2016-07-25T16:53:03Z")
There is no shortage of people known under a name other than what their birth certificate says, but it’s become more common for people to drop and rearrange given names rather than adopt some studly Nordic surname. I’ve written (and keep updating) a whole book on people who changed their first and given names but not their family/lineage names. Do you like Geetali Shankar’s music? No? How about Clyde Browne’s? Okay, then, Geetali **Norah Jones** Shankar or Clyde **Jackson Browne**? Jim Laurie’s a very funny and talented guy. Sorry, I meant James **Hugh** Calum **Laurie**. About 700 more in the book but as I no longer pay my weight around here I can’t stick it in Marketplace. It’s on Kindle; PM me for a link if you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/54 "2016-07-25T16:59:44Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I wonder if Carlos Irwin Estévez is still “Winning!”. That reminds me: I only recently learned that “Beau Bridges” is Lloyd Bridges III. No, his middle name isn’t Beauregard. No, it doesn’t even start with a ‘B’. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/55 "2016-07-25T17:30:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > There is no shortage of people known under a name other than what their birth certificate says, but it’s become more common for people to drop and rearrange given names rather than adopt some studly Nordic surname. I’ve written (and keep updating) a whole book on people who changed their first and given names but not their family/lineage names. > > Do you like Geetali Shankar’s music? No? How about Clyde Browne’s? Okay, then, Geetali **Norah Jones** Shankar or Clyde **Jackson Browne**? > > Jim Laurie’s a very funny and talented guy. Sorry, I meant James **Hugh** Calum **Laurie**. > > About 700 more in the book but as I no longer pay my weight around here I can’t stick it in Marketplace. It’s on Kindle; PM me for a link if you’re interested. How would you classify young Jake T. Austin? His real name is Jake Austin Szymanski; he of course drops the ‘Szymanski’ when he earns credits as an actor – but the point is that he also adds in a ‘T’. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/56 "2016-07-25T17:33:30Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > How would you classify young Jake T. Austin? > > His real name is Jake Austin Szymanski; he of course drops the ‘Szymanski’ when he earns credits as an actor – but the point is that he also adds in a ‘T’. Wouldn’t qualify. My criterion was people who kept their family name (or one of them - not trivial for Spanish names) but changed or dropped their first name/s. Changing or dropping a last name, or creating a whole new stage name, is too common and well-trod. AFAIK no one else has ever compiled a first initials/dropped first names compendium. Yes, it’s a peculiar obsession in both meanings of the word. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/57 "2016-07-25T17:36:41Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Wouldn’t qualify. My criterion was people who kept their family name (or one of them - not trivial for Spanish names) but changed or dropped their first name/s. > > Changing or dropping a last name, or creating a whole new stage name, is too common and well-trod. AFAIK no one else has ever compiled a first initials/dropped first names compendium. Yes, it’s a peculiar obsession in both meanings of the word. 🙂 Does your take on Andrew Clay Silverstein hinge entirely on whether he’s credited as Andrew Dice Clay or Andrew “Dice” Clay? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/58 "2016-07-25T17:49:11Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > You are really invested in “debunking” this myth, aren’t you? Sure. That’s what you do with myths. > [@](#): > > Consider “our name changed at Ellis Island” to be shorthand for “our name changed during the immigration process”. I don’t and apparently neither do any of the people making the claim in this very thread, let alone the millions of others who spout it. > [@](#): > > Also, Ellis Island was _not_ the only place where people entered, which seems to be another long-standing myth. There you have people like my father’s family which didn’t have surnames in the old country but acquired them either on the way or when they arrived here. We’ve occasionally said “our name changed at Ellis Island” when in fact, so far as the genealogists in my family can determine, _none_ of us ever came through Ellis Island on either side of the family. Would the average person recognize any of the other ports of entry? It’s often used as a shorthand, even by those of us who know better. My father came in through San Francisco and Americanized his name to match relatives already living in the country. I’m intimately acquainted with the process and its variants. Which means I know that immigration officials _did not change people’s names_. Nowhere at no time. That was the exact opposite of their purpose and function, which was _to get the names as exactly right as possible_. There’s no shorthand way to make the opposite of the truth the truth. Shut the myth down once and for all. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/59 "2016-07-25T18:19:44Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Heh. Given all this talk of how performers sometimes try not to seem “ethnic”, consider Carmen Electra: that sounds kind of _Mediterranean,_ right? Like, kind of Greek, and kind of Italian? Or maybe Spanish? Yeah, that’s just the stage name of Ohio-born Tara Patrick, which is a name so blandly Irish that you’d think it couldn’t get more Irish – until you learn that she’s the daughter of Patricia Patrick. I’d imagine the existence of porn actress Tera Patrick could have had something to do with her name change, although I don’t know which one started in their respective businesses earlier. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/60 "2016-07-25T18:41:48Z")
For the other way around, actress Tia Carrere (legal name: Althea Rae Janairo) is apparently the reason why Jessica Steinhauser picked the stage name Asia Carrera. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783.md?page=4)