# 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:** 4
**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, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/61 "2016-07-25T19:07:17Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Does your take on Andrew Clay Silverstein hinge entirely on whether he’s credited as Andrew Dice Clay or Andrew “Dice” Clay? 😉 I’m a little flexible on inclusion, especially when it’s as bizarre as, say, Gerald Ford’s (a double “Junior,” among other things) or Anne Rice’s (too bizarre to describe - her birth name was Howard. As Obama’s mother’s was Stanley, by the way.). But in general, dropping a last name or swapping in a completely different name aren’t included. ---
**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, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/62 "2016-07-25T19:11:02Z")
(By the way, sorry, Xap. I didn’t see your much more authoritative post before I wrote mine.) ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/63 "2016-07-25T19:11:56Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Do you like Geetali Shankar’s music? No? How about Clyde Browne’s? I prefer James McCartney’s. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/64 "2016-07-25T19:14:17Z")
**Exapno Mapcase** : My great-grandfather got a new last name when he came to America. So did the siblings he was with and his mother. All had patronyms. Everybody got the same patronym as my great-great grandfather. It’s weird to see the record for when he got left the country to give one name and when he arrived another. This caused the oddity of the siblings that had come on their own earlier had different last names as the later siblings. Hardly a one off. In particular, women’s last names ending with -datter got switched over to -sen/-son in general. Myth, shmyth. (My other great-grandfather’s emmigration (and census) record gave as a last name the farm he last lived on. On arrival he took as a last name the farm he was born on (consistent with siblings). I think that was more his own choosing.) ---
**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, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/65 "2016-07-25T19:16:13Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’m a little flexible on inclusion, especially when it’s as bizarre as, say, Gerald Ford’s (a double “Junior,” among other things) or Anne Rice’s (too bizarre to describe - her birth name was Howard. As Obama’s mother’s was Stanley, by the way.). But in general, dropping a last name or swapping in a completely different name aren’t included. Gotcha. So if I have this straight, then the woman who gets credited as “Cheryl McFadden” as a choreographer counts when she gets credited as “Gates McFadden” when she’s acting, because her name is Cheryl Gates McFadden – but Kevin Spacey Fowler, performing under the name “Kevin Spacey”, _doesn’t._ Right? ---
**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, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/66 "2016-07-25T19:18:25Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I prefer James McCartney’s. Yeah, I love jazz. His kid did some stuff, too, if you’re into that longhair stuff. ---
**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, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/67 "2016-07-25T19:19:34Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Gotcha. > > So if I have this straight, then the woman who gets credited as “Cheryl McFadden” as a choreographer counts when she gets credited as “Gates McFadden” when she’s acting, because her name is Cheryl Gates McFadden – but Kevin Spacey Fowler, performing under the name “Kevin Spacey”, _doesn’t._ Right? Right. There are hundreds of lists from listicles to fat books of stage names and names changed by dropping last names. I think there is one (1) entry that works the other way. 🙂 ---
**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, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/68 "2016-07-25T19:24:31Z")
How about the strange case of Bernadette Peters? Bernadette Lazzara wanted a stage name that didn’t include her father’s last name – but it’s not that she had anything against her father or his name, because I hear Peter Lazzara was awesome. ---
**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, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/69 "2016-07-25T19:30:41Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Right. > > There are hundreds of lists from listicles to fat books of stage names and names changed by dropping last names. > > I think there is one (1) entry that works the other way. 🙂 I don’t know whether you’d count Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm – who dropped the “Rolf”, so he’d obviously qualify if he’d just stopped there and billed himself as Peter Storm; but he instead acts under the name Peter _Stormare,_ so – what is that, a flourish or a flip? Is it a little extra sizzle, or a whole new steak? ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/70 "2016-07-25T20:00:52Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’m a little flexible on inclusion, especially when it’s as bizarre as, say, Gerald Ford’s (a double “Junior,” among other things) or Anne Rice’s (too bizarre to describe - her birth name was Howard. As Obama’s mother’s was Stanley, by the way.). But in general, dropping a last name or swapping in a completely different name aren’t included. Anne Rice’s change is not bizarre at all, she married Stan Rice. ---
**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, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/71 "2016-07-25T20:03:39Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I don’t know whether you’d count Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm – who dropped the “Rolf”, so he’d obviously qualify if he’d just stopped there and billed himself as Peter Storm; but he instead acts under the name Peter _Stormare,_ so – what is that, a flourish or a flip? Is it a little extra sizzle, or a whole new steak? Precisely the kind of thing I do include, on the fringey side… but ONLY because of that dropped first name. Two of my favorites… the poet Theodore Watts, who added his mother’s maiden name rather late in life, enabling a colleague to fire off the deadly, “Theodore, Watts-Dunton?” I couldn’t really justify the inclusion until I found his birth name was… Walter Theodore Watts. …and Ludwig Mies, who dressed up his professional name the same way, becoming Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Instead of Maria Ludwig Michael Mies. ---
**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, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/72 "2016-07-25T20:05:10Z")
> [@moojja](#): > > Anne Rice’s change is not bizarre at all, she married Stan Rice. She was born Howard Allen Frances O’Brien. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/73 "2016-07-25T20:07:12Z")
> [@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. And Derek Dick was the lead singer of Marillion with a long solo career and has always gone by Fish. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/74 "2016-07-25T20:19:10Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > And Derek Dick was the lead singer of Marillion with a long solo career and has always gone by Fish. Philip K. Dick was the one famous Dick who kept his real name, but he did translate his first and last names from the Greek and German respectively to create the alter ego Horselover Fat. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/75 "2016-07-25T20:20:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Rooney Mara dropped her first name, Patricia. Her names are both the family names of her grandfathers, the owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/76 "2016-07-25T20:23:13Z")
I’m pretty sure even today stage names are heavily used. I believe there is a SAG rule that only allows one actor/actress to have a particular name at any given time. ---
**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, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/77 "2016-07-25T20:28:23Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > I’m pretty sure even today stage names are heavily used. I believe there is a SAG rule that only allows one actor/actress to have a particular name at any given time. Hence Michael G. Fox, William H. Macy, others. I turned down a starring role in a Hollywood blockbuster because my name is already taken in the rolls. By a one-shot actor of… limited exposure. I do understand there is an arbitration procedure but they couldn’t get Virginia Madsen to take the the corresponding role, so I said the hell with it. ---
**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, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/78 "2016-07-25T21:35:14Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > I’m pretty sure even today stage names are heavily used. I believe there is a SAG rule that only allows one actor/actress to have a particular name at any given time. Also, Jean-Claude VAN DAMME sounds like WHAM-BAM, but there’s no onomatopoeiac help for a would-be action star named Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/79 "2016-07-25T21:50:23Z")
more than a few people think Madonna and Prince are fake names but they are their real first names. ---
**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, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/80 "2016-07-25T21:54:39Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > more than a few people think Madonna and Prince are fake names but they are their real first names. Madonna is not uncommon in Italian/Catholic families. “Prince Rogers” was Prince’s father’s stage name, as leader of the Prince Rogers Trio. (His real name was John L. Nelson.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783.md?page=5)