“I’m really proud of my 20-letter name. It’s pretty awesome.”
In Hollywood, you’d be surprised by how many celebrities don’t go by their real name. Instead, on the rise to fame, they choose to adopt a stage name. Whether it’s because they were told their given name wasn’t interesting enough or was too hard to pronounce, many have felt pressured to change their moniker.
But not all stars have given into the insistence of managers and executives who wanted them to get rid of their identity. Quite a few stars have stood strong with their desire to keep their names — and have succeeded despite the demands.
Read on to find out which stars turned down a name change…
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1. Zoe Saldaña
Early on in Zoe Saldaña’s career, her team suggested to her that she change her name. Zoe later explained that her manager told her that it was something everyone in Hollywood did — and even the manager herself had changed her moniker.
“When I did Center Stage, I remember being discouraged by my management at that time to use my name. But their intention was never for me to stop being who I am. They celebrated who I was,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
She continued, “But my manager at the time was a former singer and a ballroom performer, and she did change her name as well when she was a teenager back in the ’60s, I believe. And she said it’s what everybody does. That today is advice we consider poor, but that was her doing the best that she wanted for me. But I still knew that I liked my name.”
2. Saoirse Ronan
Growing up, Saoirse Ronan considered changing her difficult to pronounce name — especially considering she didn’t know anyone else who shared the moniker. But as she got older, she decided that she wasn’t going to let anyone affect how she felt about her name.
“When I was a child and nobody else was called Saoirse, I thought, ‘Oh, I’d like a normal name,’ just because I was a kid,” she told the Irish Independent. “But the older I got, I decided I was never going to change anything for anyone.”
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3. Hasan Minhaj
When Hasan Minhaj began his career in comedy, he was told he was going to have to change his name. At first he tried going by the name Sean at a few open mic nights but ultimately decided to use a more Americanized pronunciation of his real name, much to his parent’s dismay. But everything changed for him during an appearance on The Ellen Show when she mispronounced his name — and he decided to set the record straight once and for all.
“When I first started doing comedy, people were like, ‘You should change your name.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not going to change my name.’ If you can pronounce Ansel Elgort, you can pronounce Hasan Minhaj. There’s an actor just named Ansel Elgort and we all just walk around pronouncing it, completely normally,” Hasan said on the show.
4. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
Growing up, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan knew her name was hard to say so she used to anglicize it so it was easier for others to pronounce. Looking back, she says she would tell classmates and friends to call her “tray, like my tray of cookies.” When she landed her role in Never Have I Ever, she decided to use the opportunity as a fresh start to teach others how to properly say her name.
“When I came to Hollywood and people were like, ‘Sorry, how do you say your name?’ That was my epiphany of like, ‘You have a fresh start, no one here knows your name, go for it.’ And I’m really proud of my 20-letter name. It’s pretty awesome,” she told Refinery 29 Australia.
She continued, “I don’t ever plan on changing it, and I just want people to respect that and try their hardest to say it right. Obviously, they might not get it right the first time, I get it, that’s totally fine. Just try and just give me that respect because that’s something that everyone deserves when it comes to their own name.”
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5. Harrison Ford
As a young actor, Harrison Ford was encouraged to use a stage name like many of his fellow entertainers. Harrison wasn’t into the idea of going by a different name so when the studio told him to come up with alternate monikers, he decided on the outlandish name Kurt Affair. The studio eventually dropped the idea and Harrison got out of his contract.
“They thought Harrison Ford was a pretentious name for a young man. I didn’t agree with that. I thought it was a pretentious name for an old man. I still haven’t changed it,” Harrison shared.
6. Barbra Streisand
When Barbra Streisand was a young musician, she was told she should change her name to Barbara Sands. Looking back, she says she had no interest in going by a stage name — but she did agree to remove an “a” from her birth name Barbara to make her moniker more unique.
“People wanted me to be called Barbara Sands. I thought, ‘What? No. Streisand is my name. I don’t want to change it,’” Barbra shared on The Tonight Show.
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7. Michael Peña
When Michael Peña first got to Hollywood, it was recommended that he change his name. Michael declined, feeling that altering his name would be erasing some of his identity and his family’s history. Even though he saw actors who had changed their name getting more jobs than him, he wanted to become an inspiration to other Latino people.
“I saw that some people would change their name, and they would get commercials. I just thought it was a slap in the face…because I did deal with racism as a kid. So it felt like changing my name would be kind of like conforming. I’m not really down for that,” he told GQ.
He continued, “I know that my parents, they crossed the border to offer us a great life. And I didn’t want to turn my back on my dad working two full-time jobs, my mom working two full-time jobs, so me and my brother could go to private school. So I never considered it. It could’ve been easier, maybe. Maybe in the beginning.”
8. Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez’s father Martin Sheen was born Ramón Estévez but adopted a stage name early in his career. When his children decided to pursue acting, he hoped that they wouldn’t do the same, encouraging them to keep their family name. Emilio’s agent did in fact ask him to change his name — but he declined.
“The only influence I had on Emilio was to keep his name. When he started out, his agent was advising him to change his name to Sheen and he wouldn’t do it. And I thank God he didn’t,” he told Closer Weekly.
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9. Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch was actually given the first name Jo at birth but while in school, she decided to go by her middle name Raquel. When she began her entertainment career, executives wanted her to change her name to Debbie. She declined.
“People didn’t like my name and they said it was too ethnic, too difficult to pronounce, too exotic,” she shared. “They wanted to change it and I was not happy at all. I did really feel like Raquel.”
10. Quvenzhané Wallis
Annie star Quvenzhané Wallis may have a name that’s difficult to pronounce but she says she’s not interested in having it any other way. Quvenzhané is the name she was given at birth and it’s the name she’ll be keeping.
“I will never change because that’s what I was born with,” she told V magazine.
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11. Andy García
When Andy García first began his acting career in the 1970s, he was urged to change his name. At the time, Latino actors were often “pigeonholed into parts that require a character that they think could be Hispanic.” On top of that, there weren’t many roles available that fit that description. Executives told Andy that changing his name would open up more opportunities — but he declined.
“I think that the most important thing as an artist is to [have] a very personal connection to who you are. I always felt that in changing the name I would lose sort of the essence of how I could personalize the work, my point of view. And it would be, in a way, betraying that, betraying my inner self,” Andy told HuffPost.
He continued, “So on a personal note I was just never prepared to go that route. You think about it very strongly because you want to be able to work, but at the end of the day I decided not to go that route. It’s very difficult, I think, when someone asks you who you are and you state your name and it’s not really your name.”
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