From Cardi B to Post Malone, these stars said goodbye to their given names for something a little more memorable.
Not everyone is born with a name that’s fit for a movie poster or an arena marquee. That’s why some celebrities decide to change their name on their journey to stardom. Instead of common names like Melissa or Peter, these future stars opt for something a little more memorable. And while they said goodbye to their given names, many of their stage monikers still hold very special meaning.
Here’s how these stars got their stage names…
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1. Doja Cat
Doja Cat’s real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini but when she decided to choose a stage name, she opted to pick two things she really loved — cats and weed.
“I was heavily addicted to weed and weed culture, so when I began rapping I thought of the word ‘doja’ and how it sounds like a girl’s name,” Doja told Dazed, noting that she also loved cats “in every aspect.”
2. Lizzo
Lizzo was called by her stage name long before she became famous. The musician, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, got the nickname Lizzo when she was still a teenager.
“It’s a teenage nickname. We did a thing, in Houston, you chop the second half of your name and put an O. I was ‘Lisso’ with two s’s, then everyone said it with a little swang to it so I changed the s’s to z’s and the rest is history,” she explained on an episode of Carpool Karaoke.
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3. Post Malone
Post Malone was born Austin Richard Post but when he was a teenager, he decided he needed an artist name to release the music he was making. To help pick out his new moniker, he turned to a random name generator online.
“I was like 14, and I had started getting into producing and rapping and singing over my own stuff. And I needed a name, you know, for my s—- mixtape,” he shared on The Tonight Show. “So I ran [my real name] through a random rap name generator … now I’m stuck with it.”
4. Brie Larson
Brie Larson was born Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers but when she started acting, she realized her last name was hard to pronounce. She went with the last name Larson — partially because it was a family name and partially because her American Girl doll Kirsten had the same last name!
“Well, my real name is hard to pronounce, and it just got extremely frustrating to correct people all the time. Plus, I never went by Brianne. It’s a name you get called when you’re in trouble! Larson is a family name from my great-grandmother,” she told Glamour.
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5. Cardi B
Cardi B was born Belcalis Almanzar but earned her nickname because of her sister. Cardi explained that since her sister is named Hennessy, people started calling her Bacardi. Eventually, the name evolved into Cardi B.
“My sister’s name is Hennessy, so everybody used to be like ‘Bacardi’ to me. Then I shortened it to Cardi B. The ‘B’ stands for whatever, depending on the day…beautiful or bully. No one calls me Belcalis except for my family, my mother and my daddy,” she shared on The Wendy Williams Show.
6. Alicia Keys
When Alicia Keys was first starting out, she decided she needed to switch up her birth name, Alicia Augello Cook. She says she flipped through the dictionary looking for alternate last names and originally picked ‘Wild’ but her mom didn’t like the sound of it.
“It’s a funny story. I got so desperate I went through the dictionary for something that catches my eye. I get to the W’s and I pick Wild. ‘Alicia Wild, how does that sound, Ma?’ She said, ‘It sounds like you’re a stripper.’ But I liked Keys. It’s like the piano keys. And it can open so many doors,” she told Newsweek.
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7. Lorde
When Lorde was born, she was given the name Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor but as she began to pursue music, she opted for a stage name. Early in her career, she explained that the name Lorde came from her interest in royalty.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I have been really into royals and aristocracy, so to make Lord more feminine, I just put an e on the end! Some people think it’s religious, but it’s not,” she told Interview magazine.
8. Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris might sound like a normal name but the DJ was actually born Adam Richard Wiles. Before he released his first single, he decided to switch up his name in order to create more ambiguity about himself.
“My first single was more of a soul track, and I thought Calvin Harris sounded a bit more racially ambiguous,” he reportedly told the Shortlist in 2009. “I thought people might not know if I was Black or not. After that, I was stuck with it.”
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9. John Legend
John Legend was born with the name John Stephens but was given his stage name by the friends he grew up with. By the time he was pursuing music professionally, he says more people knew him by the nickname — but he was worried he wouldn’t be able to live up to such a big name.
“John Legend is a nickname that some friends started calling me, and it kind of grew into my stage name. ‘Legend’ is something that I never would have chosen for myself originally. It grew to the point where more people in my circle would know me by that name than by my real name. I had to make a decision,” John told MTV News.
He continued, “I was just like, ‘You know what? Let’s just go for it. People are going to pay attention and I’m going to either live up to my name or I’m not.’ My bet was on me trying to live up to the name.”
10. Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars got his nickname when he was just a kid. While he was born Peter Gene Hernandez, his dad started calling him Bruno when he was still a toddler. The name stuck and then as an adult, he added Mars to his moniker.
“My dad nicknamed me Bruno since I was 2 years old … I was going to go by ‘Bruno,’ one name. Mars just kind of came joking around because that sounds bigger than life. That was it, simple as that,” Bruno told Latina in 2017.
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11. Iggy Azalea
Iggy Azalea was born Amethyst Amelia Kelly and her stage name came about by accident. She says she had a dog named Iggy and would wear a necklace with his name on it — which ended up confusing people.
“I got a name-plate necklace made in his honor. Everybody started to think that my name was Iggy so it kind of became my nickname and I took it on board and started rapping with it,” Iggy shared in 2014.
Although she almost stuck with just “Iggy,” her grandfather suggested she add a surname. “That is a street name that my mom and family live on … and it sounds very feminine and I thought it would balance out Iggy being so masculine.”
12. Halsey
Back when Halsey was just starting out, she believed her dreams were “far fetched” and in order to be successful, being herself wouldn’t be enough. She decided to “become somebody completely different,” creating the name Halsey out of anagram for her real name Ashley.
“At the time, I felt that Ashley didn’t deserve to be famous and successful because she wasn’t that special, but if I made Halsey, maybe she could be,” she told Cosmopolitan. “[Changing my name] gave me the opportunity to create a new persona that wasn’t bound by the expectations I had for myself or the limitations that others placed on me because of my upbringing or my socioeconomic situation.”
She continued, “I created a person, and she could do everything. There was no way that Ashley was going to become a king, but I made a new name for myself and took her to paranormal, supernatural heights.”
