48 Musicians Who’ve Been Lying About Their Names This Whole Time

Eliza Thompson
·3 min read
Photo credit: Kevin Mazur - Getty Images
Photo credit: Kevin Mazur - Getty Images

Famous people have a certain way shedding their regular person identity to create a more ~engaging~ persona for fans. It’s, like, a thing—we don’t make the rules. An easy way they usually do this (or, LBH, the way their *people* make them do this) is by coming up with a super creative and catchy stage name that everyone knows and loves them by. I mean, c’mon, did you reaaaally think it was a cute lil cowinkydink that Alicia Keys plays the piano and has the “last name” Keys? Welp, I hate to break it to ya, it ain’t—it’s v much intentional. But she’s just one of the many musicians out there who go by another name professionally, there’s lots more! Keep reading below to discover those you thought you knew and those who will completely shock ya.

The Ones You Probs Knew Already

  1. Nicki Minaj — Onika Tanya Maraj

  2. Lady Gaga — Stefani Joanne Germanotta

  3. Miley Cyrus — Destiny Hope Cyrus

  4. Jay Z — Shawn Carter And if you have The Black Album, you know his birth date too.

  5. Rihanna — Robyn Rihanna Fenty

  6. Drake — Aubrey Drake Graham

  7. Queen Latifah — Dana Owens She actually has an album called The Dana Owens Album, so if you didn’t already know, you just weren’t paying attention.

  8. Eminem — Marshall Mathers III See no. 6.

  9. Wiz Khalifa — Cameron Jibril Thomaz

  10. Lil Wayne — Dwayne Carter Jr.

  11. TLC — Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas

The Ones That Make You Say, “Hmm, Interesting”

  1. P!nk — Alecia Moore This was a question at bar trivia the other day, so keep it in your back pocket for future reference.

  2. Nelly — Cornell Iral Haynes Jr.

  3. Lana Del Rey — Elizabeth Woolridge Grant

  4. John Legend — John Roger Stephens

  5. Fergie — Stacy Ann Ferguson

  6. Katy Perry — Katheryn Hudson She changed it to avoid confusion with Kate Hudson the actress.

  7. Michelle Williams — Tenitra Michelle Williams

  8. Kelly Rowland — Kelendria Trene Rowland

  9. Frank Ocean — Christopher Breaux

  10. Alicia Keys — Alicia Augello Cook

  11. Jason Derulo — Jason Desrouleaux

  12. Lil Jon — Jonathan Smith

  13. Ricky Martin — Enrique Martin Morales

  14. M.I.A. — Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam

  15. Kendrick Lamar — Kendrick Lamar Duckworth

The Ones Who Really Went for It

  1. Snoop Dogg — Calvin Broadus Jr.

  2. Pitbull — Armando Christian Pérez

  3. Ludacris — Christopher Brian Bridges

  4. Iggy Azalea — Amethyst Amelia Kelly

  5. Avicii — Tim Bergling

  6. Zedd — Anton Zaslavski

  7. Aloe Blacc — Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III

  8. 50 Cent — Curtis James Jackson III

  9. Deadmau5 — Joel Thomas Zimmerman It’s not a good fake name till it’s got a number in it, amirite?

  10. Skrillex — Sonny John Moore

  11. The-Dream — Terius Youngdell Nash LBH, is the hyphen really necessary?

  12. Future — Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn

  13. Timbaland — Timothy Mosley

  14. Lorde — Ella Yelich-O'Connor

  15. Grimes — Claire Elise Boucher

  16. Diplo — Thomas Wesley Pentz

  17. Bruno Mars — Peter Gene Hernandez

  18. Charli XCX — Charlotte Emma Aitchison


Srsly, WTF?

  1. Calvin Harris — Adam Richard Wiles Why make this drastic a name change if you’re not going to at least add a number or a useless hyphen?

  2. Macklemore — Ben Haggerty

  3. Redfoo and SkyBlu of LMFAO — Stefan Gordy and Skyler Gordy

  4. Shania Twain — Eilleen Regina Edwards

And the Totally Real

  1. Madonna — Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone

  2. Beyoncé — Beyoncé Giselle Knowles

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