Performers names

I know many actors/singers have changed their real name in the past,but doesn't seem to happening these days.Not talking sports/opera/classical here but if I wanted my name up there in lights, I would want it to be easily pronouncable and not take up too many light bulbs.Is keeping your own name so family/friends can recognise you?

Nina Arianda's birth name is Nina Arianda Matijcio, so she's obviously a recent example of someone going with a name that's easier to pronounce.

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I always wondered why Jenny-Lynn Suckling didn't change her name.

I ask the same thing about the British actresses Samantha Barks and Imogen Poots. I can't see those names in print without laughing. Same goes for Meryl Streep's wannabe actress daughter, Mamie Gummer.

Opting for a stage name instead is not so common, but it happens on occasion, even if it's just one letter removed. Like Idina Menzel, for example. Her actual last name has a T in it -- Mentzel.

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Updated On: 12/21/12 at 12:56 PM

Many performers changed their name in the past to hide or minimize their ethnicity, which doesn't seem to be as widespread an issue nowadays (fortunately).

There is also a trend more towards people going by their nicknames, like Bill or Bobby. I would agree about Mamie Gummer's name, which is a nickname (as is true for her mother). Mamie was a common name in the early 1900s, but nowadays it seems like a child's name, not an adult's, at least to me.

The version I heard about Menzel's name is that her family pronounces it the way she currently pronounces it, and part of the reason she changed it was because people were pronouncing it the "right" way rather than the way her family pronounces it.

Supposedly, Drew and Nick Lachey pronounced their last name as "LATCH-ey" before they became famous, when it got Francofied.

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Updated On: 12/21/12 at 01:20 PM

I refuse to believe that someone was born with the name Stark Sands.

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There is also a trend more towards people going by their nicknames, like Bill or Bobby. I would agree about Mamie Gummer's name, which is a nickname (as is true for her mother). Mamie was a common name in the early 1900s, but nowadays it seems like a child's name, not an adult's, at least to me.

I was referring to her surname, Gummer, which is also slang for a BJ given by toothless people. But Mamie doesn't do her any favors, either.

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Kelly2, what are you referring to? All of the stories so far seem pretty harmless.

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