Pedro Pascal, Reese Witherspoon, And 21 More Famous People Who Changed Their Names Before They Got Famous

1.You know Pedro Pascal.

His full name is José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal.

He shared that he changed his name because he wanted to honor his mother, who died when he was 24. Her maiden name was Pascal.

2.You know Bruno Mars.

His full name is Peter Gene Hernandez.

He got the nickname Bruno from his dad, who thought he resembled pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino. He later added the last name Mars because he thought it added some pizzazz. He said, "A lot of girls say I’m out of this world, so I was like, I guess I’m from Mars."

3.You know Halsey.

Her full name is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, they said that as a person, Ashley Frangipane was "weak and silly and sad," so they came up with a new name inspired by Brooklyn’s Halsey Street subway stop. The name Halsey is also an anagram for "Ashley."

4.You know Billie Eilish.

Her full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell.

Billie revealed that she was actually almost named Pirate. In her book, Billie Eilish, she wrote, "They called me 'Pirate' for months, and they were kind of planning on naming me Pirate. And soon before I was born, my grandfather died, and his name was William, aka Bill, Billie. And that's where my name came from."

5.You know Dove Cameron.

Her full name is Chloe Celeste Hosterman.

She changed her name to Dove as a tribute to her father, who died when she was a teenager. In a tweet she said, "my father always called me dove. he took his own life when i was 15, i didn't get to say goodbye, so I changed it in honor of him." She later explained that her friends and family still call her Chloe.

6.You know Olivia Wilde.

Her full name is Olivia Jane Cockburn.

In an interview with the New York Observer, she explained that she wanted to use a stage name because in her family, it was a tradition. She used the last name Wilde because of her love for Oscar Wilde.

7.You know John Legend.

His full name is John Roger Stephens.

John got his last name from poet J. Ivy, who reportedly called John's music "old-school, like one of the legends."

8.You know Shania Twain.

Her full name is Eilleen Regina Twain.

On why she changed her name, she explained, “It’s actually a long story. In short, I was born Eilleen Regina Edwards, and then I was adopted and I became Eilleen Regina Twain. Then I became a professional singer and I needed a stage name that sounded a little less like my grandmother’s name, because I’m named after my grandmother, both my grandmothers, Eilleen and Regina.

“I think, in my mind, I was just not really wanting to be called my grandmother’s name onstage, so I decided to change it to Shania Twain,” she added. “I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born.”

9.You know Jason Derulo.

His full name is Jason Joel Desrouleaux.

"Derulo" is actually the phonetic spelling of "Desrouleaux."

10.You know Skeet Ulrich.

His full name is Bryan Ray Trout.

When he was a kid, he got the nickname Skeeter from his Little League coach, and he shortened it for his stage name. The name Ulrich comes from his first stepfather, whose name is D.K. Ulrich.

11.You know Dido.

Her full name is Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong.

She explained that at home, she was always just known as Dido, and that name stuck.

12.You know Lana Del Rey.

Her full name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant.

Lana explained that in changing her name, she wanted something she could "shape the music towards," adding, “I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba — Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.” She was also inspired by the Old Hollywood actor Lana Turner.

13.You know Reese Witherspoon.

Her full name is Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon.

Witherspoon is her father's last name, and Reese is her mother's last name.

14.You known Vin Diesel.

His full name is Mark Sinclair.

He got Vin as a shortened version of his mom's last name, which is Vincent. And Diesel was a nickname he earned as a teen because he was so full of energy.

15.You know Tess Holliday.

Her full name is Ryann Maegen Hoven.

She changed her first name to Tess when she started modeling and used her then-fiancé's last name. She actually cycled through different stage names, like Tess Typhoon and Tess Munster, before being signed to Milk Model Management.

16.You know Calvin Harris.

His full name is Adam Richard Wiles.

He once said that he wanted to change his name to something that sounded more "racially ambiguous." He said, "My first single was more of a soul track, and I thought 'Calvin Harris' sounded a bit more racially ambiguous. I thought people might not know if I was Black or not. After that, I was stuck with it."

17.You know Mindy Kaling.

Her full name is Vera Mindy Chokalingam.

She explained to NHPR that she shortened her name because emcees for comedy shows had a hard time pronouncing it, and "then they'd make a joke about my last name." She added, "My real name is Vera Mindy Chokalingam, and it's a South Indian name, and it's a long name. As a performer, these comedians would just butcher it and then be like, 'I don't know what it is! Just this girl, Mindy.' So I would go do stand-up nights, and I already felt like a huge distance from the audience — just as a new comedian, but then even more distance because it had been made so clear that I was ethnic."

18.You know Lily James.

Her full name is Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson.

Lily changed her last name to James in honor of her father, James Thomson, who died of cancer in 2008.

19.You know Rita Wilson.

Her full name is Margarita Ibrahimoff.

Rita was a nickname for Margarita, and it was actually her father, a Bulgarian immigrant, who changed their family's last name four years after Rita was born.

20.You know Shay Mitchell.

Her full name is Shannon Ashley Garcia Mitchell.

She told Glamour, "I love J.Lo, Jennifer Lopez. And when I was in high school, people would be like, 'Shay-Lo,' and then 'Shay' kinda stuck. We dropped 'Lo,' because no one can be J.Lo." She added that the nickname actually helped her a lot during auditions, too. She added, "When I was auditioning, I would go into rooms, and because it was a unique name, they'd ask me about it. So that would get me another minute in the room, which is always great."

21.You know Whoopi Goldberg.

Her full name is Caryn Elaine Johnson.

Back in 1997, she shared that she named herself after a whoopee cushion. She said, "The true story is that my family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist, and Catholic — none of which I subscribe to, by the way, as I don't believe in man-made religions. So I took the last name from a Jewish ancestor. And I happen to be gaseous, which explains the first name, short for whoopee cushion."

22.You know Brie Larson.

Her full name is Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers.

Brie took on the last name Larson because she was tired of people not being able to pronounce her French last name. She got the inspiration for the name change from her favorite American Girl Doll, Kirsten Larson.

23.Finally, you know Nicki Minaj.

Her full name is Onika Tanya Maraj.

She told the Guardian that when she signed one of her first production deals, she was urged by someone at the company to change her last name to Minaj, and she's hated it ever since.