# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/101 "2016-07-26T16:24:38Z")
> [@bump](#): > > 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. Carmen started her public career in the early 90s and Tera (Linda Ann Hopkins) in the late 90s, so it doesn’t seem so. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/102 "2016-07-26T16:40:42Z")
I read a story years ago in which the mystery hinged on a last name change. A Polish Jewish family named Reznik had descendants in America, where the family had changed its name to Butcher, and in Russia to where the name became Raskol and then Raskolnikov. The guy that emmigrated to Israel wanted to change his name too, but the Hebrew translation would have been Shochet, the word that means the same thing as Reznik, ritual butcher… except that this last guy was a medical doctor and felt that in his profession being named “Butcher,” or “Shochet,” was unwise. ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/103 "2016-07-26T16:48:21Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > She was born Howard Allen Frances O’Brien. Yeah, that’s understandable I would’ve like to change my name too if I was a woman. Did her father really wanted a boy? ---
**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 26, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/104 "2016-07-26T16:55:31Z")
> [@moojja](#): > > Yeah, that’s understandable I would’ve like to change my name too if I was a woman. Did her father really wanted a boy? It had something to do with her father’s insistence but I don’t know the really gritty details. She chose “Anne” for herself when she started school, and her mother did not object. ---
**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 26, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/105 "2016-07-26T16:58:12Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I read a story years ago in which the mystery hinged on a last name change. A Polish Jewish family named Reznik had descendants in America, where the family had changed its name to Butcher, and in Russia to where the name became Raskol and then Raskolnikov. The guy that emmigrated to Israel wanted to change his name too, but the Hebrew translation would have been Shochet, the word that means the same thing as Reznik, ritual butcher… except that this last guy was a medical doctor and felt that in his profession being named “Butcher,” or “Shochet,” was unwise. At that, Michael Ian Schwartz chose to act under the name Michael Ian Black. ---
**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 26, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/106 "2016-07-26T17:03:00Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] My question referred to the whole name, even if one of the examples I gave was about scrunching lastnames together. Someone may appear as María del Pilar (firstname) when credits are in Spanish, but as Maria Pilar (no connector, no diacritic) when they’re not, and IMDB will dutifully report each case. [/QUOTE] I collect these names and wrote the book almost entirely for my own amusement, partly because I used a leading initial for a time. I don’t have any hard and fast database rules about what’s in or out, and included a number of marginal cases when they were interesting (such as “D.B. Cooper”). It wasn’t my intention to create a rigid system of analysis. There are quite a few Hispanic names but Kahlo is the only one that fits this complicated “multiple variations of a name string” model. There are, by the way, no fewer than ten Hall of Fame hockey players you’d never know had the first name Joseph. Weird. ---
**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 26, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/107 "2016-07-26T17:05:44Z")
Did you make a special note of how Demi Moore went from spending her days with Walter Bruce Willis to spending her days with Christopher Ashton Kutcher? ---
**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 26, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/108 "2016-07-26T17:41:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Did you make a special note of how Demi Moore went from spending her days with Walter Bruce Willis to spending her days with Christopher Ashton Kutcher? Nah, but I’ll make a note to think about it. 🙂 I certainly haven’t bent over backwards to Be Serious about it all. (“[Thomas] Sean Connery - Shcottish actor.”) ---
**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 26, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/109 "2016-07-26T21:00:05Z")
local radio guy went by Morgan Patrick. His real name was Patrick Morgan. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/110 "2016-07-26T22:31:39Z")
In [a story](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/21/my-name-really-is-michael-caine-not-a-lot-of-people-know-this-bu/) from just the last week, “Michael Caine” claims to have finally changed his legal name from Maurice Micklewhite to Michael Caine. Problems with passport control officials in the current security climate given as the reason. ---
**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 26, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/111 "2016-07-26T22:34:57Z")
I believe “Gene Wilder” is still, legally, Jerome Silberman. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/112 "2016-07-26T23:12:57Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > And some actors were using names other than their own before they really got into the business. According to Charlton Heston’s autobiography he started using the name of Heston while in high school. It was his step father’s name, and he didn’t want the other students asking why he had a different name than the man his mother was married to. Charlton was his mother’s married name. He had a perfectly acceptable birth name, John Carter, but what’s the first thing you think of when you hear _that_? Noah Wylie? ---
**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 26, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/113 "2016-07-26T23:52:14Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > If you insist on prolonging this, I need to correct a mistaken impression. > > Virtually no immigrants arrived in 19th century America with only one name and no surname. That’s because the overwhelming number of immigrants were European. European countries had already bureaucratized. They’re the ones who started insisting on papers and proper names and registry of birth certificates and all the other apparatus WESTERN European nations were like that. Even that wasn’t universal, however - a patronymic is NOT a surname and one other poster already related his family’s experience with a patronymic becoming a surname and, just as in my family, different family members winding up with different surnames because they came over at different times. Even today people in Iceland do not have surnames they continue to use patronymics. It is still common today for those in Russia to use their patronymic as we would a middle name. Of course, Russia and other Eastern European bits have often been excluded when discussing “Europe”. Again, my people were _refugees_. They were forced out of their homeland by a government that threatened to kill them if they did not leave. No, they did not have papers and yes they did arrive in the 1890’s. You are correct the name change did not occur at Ellis Island because _we did not come through Ellis Island_. We were white enough to be let in, and Asian enough to have unconventional names. Sorry if we don’t fit the pattern, but that was one of my points. Ya’ll can breathe a sigh of relief now, because this is my last post on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/114 "2016-07-27T10:35:19Z")
3 pages and no mandatory joke yet? (@ local bureaucratic branch) “I’d like to change my name.” “Yeeesss. What is your name now?” “Richard Dick.” “Ah, I can see why. Yeeeesss. And what would you be like to be called?” “Richard Long.” ---
**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 27, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/115 "2016-07-27T17:51:46Z")
Well, cool. I am updating the book (inspired by this thread, a backlog of new entries and really sucky-hot weather that makes it impossible to get anything useful done) and I get to my note on… J Tony Serra. Okay, I listed it because “J Tony” is obviously an ablated name, but I can’t find any further information - WP, the CA bar listing and his website all simply have “J Tony Serra.” So I man up and drop a little note to Mr. J Tony Serra, expecting either no reply or a brushoff from a flapper. J is for Joseph, his birth name. Tony was his father’s name and what he was called from an early age. J Tony is what he chose as a professional/adult name. Cool. But he thinks his five kids’ names are more interesting: Shelter, Ivory, Chime, Wonder, and Lilac. ---
**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 27, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/116 "2016-07-27T17:53:59Z")
> [@yo\_han\_go](#): > > “I’d like to change my name.” > “Yeeesss. What is your name now?” > “Richard Dick.” > “Ah, I can see why. Yeeeesss. And what would you be like to be called?” > “Richard Long.” I heard it as “Abraham Stinker” and “Allen Stinker.” But I read it in a 1930s humor book. And, in Robots, Robin Williams’ character is Fender - which in the old country was Bumper. ---
**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 27, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/117 "2016-07-27T17:58:55Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Well, cool. I am updating the book (inspired by this thread, a backlog of new entries and really sucky-hot weather I take it you’ve already got Jack Black? (How did no African-American actor beat him to that stage name?!?) ---
**Author:** ![yo\_han\_go](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yo_han_go/32/130_2.png) [@yo\_han\_go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yo_han_go)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/118 "2016-07-27T17:59:27Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I heard it as “Abraham Stinker” and “Allen Stinker.” But I read it in a 1930s humor book. > > And, in Robots, Robin Williams’ character is Fender - which in the old country was Bumper. Yeeeesss. There are thousands of variants of them. And they do work in other languages too. Just wanted too add some value to the topic as it deteriorated to some but-hurt debate. Fell free to contribute. ---
**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 27, 2016, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/119 "2016-07-27T18:02:03Z")
Probably not many high-profile names I don’t have at this point. There are just under 750 entries. ---
**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 27, 2016, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783/120 "2016-07-27T18:07:07Z")
Gotcha. I’ll confine myself to contributing names to this thread that _don’t_ fit your book’s terms, like – Lily James? I don’t think anyone’s yet mentioned Lily James. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-actors-stop-using-stage-names/760783.md?page=7)