There are many reasons why celebrities opt for stage names — to hold on to some anonymity, to distinguish themselves from another star with the same name, or even just to swamp their regular name for something that stands out.
However, for those with famous last names, there is a benefit to holding on to their well-connected family name. As we’ve seen in Hollywood, having a last name like Depp, Kravitz or Hawke can give you a leg up in the industry and in recent years that privilege has sparked some important conversations about nepotism and who has access to opportunities — the “nepo baby” debate as it has been dubbed.
That said, there are also some stars out there who have gone by different last names in order to separate themselves from their famous parents. Now, we’re not saying that a name change puts them on the same playing field as someone entering Hollywood with no contacts or connections to producers, directors and more. But we have to respect anyone who didn’t rely on their recognizable last name to get themselves on to movie posters!
There are certainly some surprises on this list. For example, did you know that Olivia Wilde is using a stage name to blur her ties to her well-connected parents? The Cowboys & Aliens actress and Don’t Worry Darling director has successfully made a name for herself in a very different industry than her successful parents. Some other stars on the list attempted to launch a career under a different name but ended up opting to represent their family while another entry didn’t take the stage name of a famous parent in order to keep their own identity.
For a full list of stars who use different names than their famous parents, keep reading!
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie‘s impressive career in Hollywood and her inspirational activism has most definitely set her apart from her famous father but when she was starting out, Jolie opted to change her last name to severe her ties to her estranged dad Jon Voight. Instead she goes by her middle name, Jolie.
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Coppola opted for the stage name “Cage” early in his career to distance himself from his famous uncle, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now director Francis Ford Coppola.
The actor told Wired in 2022: “I changed my name because I was doing a little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High and I was still Nicolas Coppola, and people would not stop saying things like, ‘I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning,’ because of Apocalypse Now, and Robert Duvall saying, ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning,’ and it made it hard to work and I said, ‘I don’t need this,’ and changed it to Cage.”
Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde isn’t descended from the same level of Hollywood royalty as Jolie or Cage but her birth name has a lot of clout in the journalism industry.
The actress/director is the daughter of Harper’s Magazine editor Andrew Cockburn and investigative journalist Leslie Cockburn.
“My mother thought it was a good idea for me as well, so I could have my own identity outside of my family. She suggested I pick something Irish and something that I’d always be inspired by,” Wilde toldThe New York Observer in 2007, explaining that she ended up opting for playwright Oscar Wilde’s name.
Norah Jones
Norah Jones was born Geethali Shankar and is the daughter of musician Ravi Shankar. She officially changed her name to Norah Jones, her middle name and her mom’s last name, at the age of 16.
Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling might be proudly using her birth name today but when she originally auditioned for Beverly Hills, 90210, she auditioned for casting directors under the name “Tori Mitchell” to avoid any association with her father and producer of the hit show, Aaron Spelling.
“I heard about the show from my agent. She said, ‘Your dad is doing it.’ I was like, ‘I haven’t heard anything about it.’ I popped into his briefcase when he got home, and I was like, cool. I really wanted to play Andrea. I went in under a different name, then I got the part of Donna — which I’m sure had something to do with my dad,” she told EW in 2000.
Henry Wolfe
Singer-songwriter Henry Wolfe is the son of Meryl Streep and Don Gummer but goes only by his first and middle name professionally.
Louisa Jacobson
Like her brother, Meryl Streep’s daughter Louisa Gummer goes by her middle name, Jacobson. In addition to avoiding some nepotism, The Gilded Age star also dropped her last name because there already is an actress named Louisa Gummer and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) requires that “no member use a professional name which is the same as, or resembles so closely as to tend to be confused with the name of any other member.”
Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez technically didn’t change his name but he dulled the association with his famous father, Martin Sheen, by not opting for a stage name like his dad had done.
In 2023, Estevez told Today that his father deeply regretted not using his birth name professionally. “Back in the day in 1958, he changed his name from Ramón Estévez to Martin Sheen because, at the time, there was a lot of prejudice against people with the Hispanic name,” Estevez shared. “I think when it was time for me to sort of start making those moves and start getting out and doing auditions, he said, ‘Man, if I had one thing to do over, it was that I never would have changed my name.'”
Unlike Estevez, his brother, Charlie Sheen, chose to take on his dad’s stage name when he started his career.
Elle King
Singer-songwriter Elle King was born Tanner Elle Schneider and is the daughter of comedian, actor and former SNL star Rob Schneider however she goes by her middle name and mom’s maiden name.
“It’s not that I wanted to be a famous person. I wanted to be a performer,” King told ABC News in 2015. “But I worked really hard and I did everything myself and I took a name that … is my mother’s name … I took that name because I wanted to be myself.”
“And, yeah, people know who my dad is,” she added. “But I think that my voice and my music speaks for itself: that I am my own person.”
Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias, the son of fellow singer Julio Iglesias, originally began writing music under several different aliases in order to keep his music a secret from his parents. However, after getting signed, he began releasing music under his real name.
Of his famous name, Iglesias told CBS: “I think at times it was positive and at times it was negative,” he replied. “Does it gather the attention of the media? Yes, it does. But it could also at times discredit you.”
Scott Eastwood
Scott Eastwood now proudly uses the name of his father, Clint Eastwood, but when he was starting out he went by Scott Reeves after his mom, Jacelyn Reeves. “Everyone—agents, managers—wanted me to go Eastwood, and I said no,” the actor told Interview magazine in 2009. “I said, you want to represent me, you represent Scott Reeves.”
“I think my dad always wanted me to,” Eastwood said of the decision. “I just wanted to prove to myself that I could carry on his name.”
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