“I’m really satisfied with my 20-letter name. It’s quite superior.”
In Hollywood, you’d be surprised how many celebrities don’t use their real names. Instead, in their rise to fame, they choose to take on a stage name. Whether it’s because they were told their name wasn’t interesting enough or was too difficult to pronounce, many felt pressured to change their nickname.
But not all stars gave in to the insistence of managers and executives who wanted them to eliminate their identity. Many stars remained steadfast in their desire to keep their names – and succeeded despite the pleas.
Read on to find out which stars turned down a reputation change…
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1. Zoe Saldaña
Early in Zoe Saldaña’s career, her team recommended that she change her name. Zoe later explained that her manager told her it was something everyone in Hollywood did – and even the manager herself had changed her nickname.
“Once I did Intermediate stageI remember being discouraged by my administration currently from using my name. But their intention was in no way for me to stop being who I am. They celebrated who I was,” she told Leisure Weekly.
She continued: “But my manager at the time was a former singer and ballroom artist, and he also changed his name when he was a kid in the 60s, I imagine. And he or she stated that it’s what everyone does. This is now advice that we consider bad, but it was her doing the best she wanted for me. But I still knew I liked my name.”
2. Saoirse Ronan
Growing up, Saoirse Ronan thought about changing her hard-to-pronounce name — especially considering she didn’t know anyone else who shared the nickname. But as she got older, she decided that she wouldn’t let anyone influence how she felt about her name.
“When I was a kid and no one was called Saoirse anymore, I thought, ‘Oh, I’d like a traditional name’, just because I was a kid,” she told Irish Impartial. “But the older I got, I made a decision that would never change anything for anyone.”
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3. Hasan Minhaj
When Hasan Minhaj began his career in comedy, he was told he would have to change his name. At first, he tried using the name Sean at several open mic nights, but ultimately decided to use a more Americanized pronunciation of his real name, much to his mother’s dismay. But everything changed for him during one look at the Ellen’s Gift when she mispronounced her identity – and he decided to correct the document as quickly as possible.
“When I started doing comedy, people said, ‘You need to change your name.’ And I say, ‘I’m not going to change my identity.’ If you can pronounce Ansel Elgort, you can pronounce Hasan Minhaj. There’s an actor simply called Ansel Elgort and we all just go around announcing it, generally,” Hasan said on the show.
4. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
Growing up, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan knew that her name was difficult to say, so she used to anglicize it so that it would be easier for others to pronounce. Looking back, she says she would tell colleagues and friends to call her “tray, like my cookie tray.” When she got her position in In no way have I evershe decided to take advantage of the opportunity as a contemporary and begin teaching others how to correctly say her name.
“When I got to Hollywood and other people asked me, ‘Excuse me, how do you say your name?’ That was my epiphany of like, ‘You’re going to have a new beginning, no one here knows your name, go for it.’ And I’m really satisfied with my 20-letter name. It’s pretty incredible,” she told Refinery 29 Australia.
She continued: “I never intend to change that and I just want people to respect that and do their best to say what is right. Obviously they won’t get it right the first time, I understand, this is absolutely top quality. Just try to give me that respect because that’s something everyone deserves when it comes to their own name.
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5. Harrison Ford
As a young actor, Harrison Ford was inspired to use a stage name like many of his fellow artists. Harrison didn’t like the idea of using a different name, so when the studio instructed him to give alternate names, he chose the strange name Kurt Affair. The studio eventually abandoned the concept and Harrison terminated his contract.
“They thought Harrison Ford was a pretentious name for a younger man. I didn’t agree with that. I assumed it was a pretentious identity for an ex-man. Still, I didn’t change it,” Harrison shared.
6. Barbara Streisand
When Barbra Streisand was a young musician, she was told to change her name to Barbara Sands. Looking back, she says she had little interest in using a stage name — but she agreed to remove an “a” from her first name, Bárbara, to make her nickname more distinctive.
“People wanted me to be called Barbara Sands. I assumed, ‘What? No. Streisand is my name. I don’t want to change this,’” Barbra shared on Tonight’s gift.
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7. Michael Peña
When Michael Peña first arrived in Hollywood, it was a good thing he changed his name. Michael refused, feeling that changing his identity would erase part of his identity and his family’s historical past. Although he saw actors who changed their names get more jobs than him, he wanted to become an inspiration to other Latino people.
“I noticed that some people changed their identities and received commercials. I just thought it was a slap in the face… because I dealt with racism as a child. So it seemed like changing my identity would be like conforming. I’m probably not up for that,” he told GQ.
He continued: “I know my mother and father crossed the border to provide us with a fantastic life. And I didn’t want to turn my back on my dad who works two full-time jobs, my mom who works two full-time jobs, so my brother and I could go to a private school. So I never thought about it. It could have been simpler, possibly. Maybe to start.
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 they wouldn’t do the same, encouraging them to keep the family name. In fact, Emilio’s agent asked him to change his name, but he refused.
“The only influence I had on Emilio was to maintain his identity. When he first started out, his agent advised him to change his name to Sheen and he didn’t do it. And I thank God he didn’t do that,” he told Nearer Weekly.
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9. Rachel Welch
In fact, Raquel Welch was given the main name Jo at first, but during class, she decided to use her main name, Raquel. When she began her career in entertainment, executives wanted her to change her name to Debbie. She refused.
“People didn’t like my name and often said it was too ethnic, too hard to pronounce, too original,” she shared. “They wanted to change and I wasn’t happy at all. I really felt like Raquel.”
10. Quvenzhané Wallis
Annie star Quvenzhané Wallis may have a hard-to-pronounce name, but she says she’s not thrilled with another approach. Quvenzhané is the name she was given at the beginning and it is the name she will use.
“I’m not going to change in any way because that’s what I was born with,” she told V magazine.
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11. Andy Garcia
When Andy García began his acting career in the 1970s, he was encouraged to change his name. At the time, Latino actors were often “classified into elements that required a personality that they thought might be Hispanic.” Furthermore, there weren’t many roles available that matched this description. Executives told Andy that changing his name would open up more opportunities – but he refused.
“I feel like a very powerful thing as an artist is (having) a very personal connection to who you are. I always felt that by changing my identity I would lose a little of the essence of how I can personalize the work, my point of view. And it will be, in a way, betraying that, betraying my inner self,” Andy told HuffPost.
He continued: “So, privately, I was never ready to go down that path. You focus a lot on this because you want to have the skills 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 say your name and it’s probably not your name.
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