You might not know it, but far more famous people than you realize rocketed to celebrity status using fake names. We’re not talking about actors here, either. It’s commonplace for actors to take a stage name that sounds better, different, or more memorable than their real name. It’s happened countless times and doesn’t exactly warrant a whole list, you know? After all, pretty much everybody knows that John Wayne’s name wasn’t John Wayne. (Yeah, we’re onto you, Marion Morrison…)
Aside from actors, this list dives into the real names of ten world-famous people. These folks are known by pretty much everybody around the globe by one name—but it’s not their given name. Read on for the stories of why these people changed their names, what their birth names really were, and how the world came to know them by the moniker that helped them strike proverbial gold!
Related: 10 Real People Behind Classic Fictional Characters
10 Pablo Picasso
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Pablo Picasso may have been a world-famous painter with a particularly alliterative (and highly memorable) name, but that wasn’t his real name. At least… that wasn’t his entire real name. His actual given name at birth was much longer. Much, much, much longer. Here, try to say this name five times fast: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano María Remedios de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso. Got it? Or not?
That’s what Pablo Picasso’s real name actually was. But you can’t exactly promote an art show (or literally anything else) with that as your real name. Could you imagine what he would have done with a driver’s license with a name like that? Or a social media username? Too many characters! Interestingly, until about 1901, Picasso did use one of his many extra names. He’d go by “Pablo Ruiz” or sometimes “Pablo Ruiz Picasso.” But over time, he ditched the “Ruiz” and became known as the man we all remember today. Probably for the better![1]
9 Yogi Berra
We’ll forgive you if you tend to get the New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra confused with the cartoon character Yogi Bear. Both have weird names, but while one is a made-up cartoon that brings people joy (we hope!), the other is a very real and very talented catcher who played in Major League Baseball forever. Still, the famed Yankees legend has a strange name. There’s no way his parents actually named him “Yogi” when he was a baby… right?
Correct! The baseball Hall of Famer was born as Lawrence Peter Berra. Perhaps he would have stayed that way forever (or been called something like Larry or Pete) had he not gone to the movies one day with a pal during his teenage years. The pair came across scenes of a Hindu yogi master. The friend, who evidently was not the most, um, culturally sensitive person in the world, remarked how Yogi (er, Lawrence) looked a lot like that Hindu yogi. From there, the name stuck. Forever after, he was “Yogi” Berra. And now, it’s the only name we know him by![2]
8 Marilyn Monroe
If you’ve ever wondered whether the name “Marilyn Monroe” was simply too good to be true, well, your instincts were correct. It was indeed a stage name for one of the most beautiful (and earliest) bombshell icons in American history. In reality, the woman who picked that stage name was born Norma Jeane Mortensen. Not a great name, right? “Norma Jeane” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Even after she got married (well, one of the times she got married) and became Norma Jeane Dougherty, it still wasn’t the smoothest thing to say. So changes were necessary.
Those changes occurred after an entertainment industry executive caught wind of the woman’s grace, style, class, and demeanor. He was enthralled with her beauty and the way she carried herself. And he rightly recognized that she needed a name change. So he picked the name “Marilyn,” which was inspired by a past Broadway star by the name of Marilyn Miller. Then, he used alliteration, as in Miller’s case, while dropping the “Monroe” after it. And voila! That is what’s in a name.
There’s a deeply disturbing closer to this story, too. Marilyn Miller was just 37 years old when she died in 1936 after complications from surgery; Marilyn Monroe tragically died at just 36 years old less than three decades later.[3]
7 Leon Trotsky
Trotsky may have been one of the most well-known and effective Marxist revolutionaries ever, but he wasn’t born Leon Trotsky. That name really obviously seems like it’s too good to be true, doesn’t it? It just rolls off the tongue a little too easily for some late 19th-century Russian baby to have been given it. And sure enough, Trotsky wasn’t Trotsky at all. He was actually born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein. Like we said, there just isn’t the same ring to that name as to Trotsky… although, to be fair, “Lev” is a pretty cool first name.
In case you are wondering, the name Leon Trotsky came about after the Marxist writer and theorist was arrested by Russian authorities in 1898. He was imprisoned for all of his unnerving Marxist ideas (so claimed the powers that be, at least) and sent off to a work camp in the wilds of Siberia. He eventually escaped and struck out on a path that eventually led him to London. Along that route, he forged a passport with the phony name Leon Trotsky. He liked the sound of it, the name stuck on his “new” legal documents, and thus, his identity as the man we know today was born. Er, created.[4]
6 Joseph Stalin
Let’s follow up Trotsky with one of the men who Trotsky didn’t exactly, uh, get along with very well. Joseph Stalin may have been the Soviet’s most powerful dictator and one of the most feared and brutal men to ever live. But his name wasn’t actually Joseph Stalin. In fact, that was a fiction he concocted to make himself seem more powerful and invincible to the people he needed to fall in line behind him to run Russia as he saw fit.
In reality, the Soviet dictator was born with the name Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. But that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue—even if you speak Russian. And it wasn’t memorable for good reasons, like being short, simple, and powerful. No, Stalin needed something else. So, right when he was getting things going in the early 1900s, he took on a Westernized version of his first name, becoming Joseph. Then, for good measure, he picked “Stalin” as his last name. That word means “steel” in Russian, and it’s pretty apt for the image he wanted to portray in his role.[5]
5 Che Guevara
The famed guerrilla leader and communist Cuban revolutionary who has lodged his place in the psyche of so many people for good, bad, and controversial reasons wasn’t actually named Che Guevara. That turned out to be a very apt—and easy to remember—nickname for him. It rolled off the tongue so well that he effectively adopted it early in his life and then stuck to it for the rest of his days. But after his birth, his parents christened him with a far different and much more official-sounding moniker: Ernesto Guevara de la Serna.
And yet “Che” just sounds better and more fun to say than “Ernesto,” doesn’t it? So, Che, it was. By the way, the whole point of using “Che” was this. In Argentina, people like to use the word “che” as an interjection when speaking with others in casual conversation. If you want to interject into something someone else says, you hit them with a “che!” In Guatemala in the 1950s, Guevara must have been interjecting quite a bit because somebody gave him that nickname out of exasperation—and it stuck for the rest of his life.[6]
4 Babe Ruth
Perhaps you won’t be surprised that “Babe” wasn’t the first name on Babe Ruth’s birth certificate. While babies are cute and all, and “Babe” would seem to be a nice name for an infant, you can’t exactly name a kid “Babe” and just let him into the world, knowing that he’s going to grow up one day and get teased about it. So, in Babe Ruth’s case, he was officially born as “George Herman Ruth, Jr.” That’s not as catchy as Babe, though. (Or The Babe, the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, or all the other names he went by during his days playing for the New York Yankees.)
The story of how he came to be known as Babe is kind of funny, though. It all started when he was 19—definitely still not a “babe” by that age!—and a scout with his hometown Baltimore Orioles offered him a professional baseball contract. But at his age, and at that time, Ruth required a legal guardian to sign the contract to make it official. Well, by then, Babe had been cast off from his family and was raised in an orphanage. So Orioles owner Jack Dunn legally became Ruth’s guardian in order to allow the young ballplayer to sign the contract. In short order, other players on his new team jokingly began calling him “Jack’s newest babe.” And the name stuck![7]
3 Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela may be famous across the world for being the man who led the movement to bring down apartheid in South Africa. In the process, that incredible achievement helped win him a Nobel Peace Prize. And to this day—and likely for centuries to come—he will be rightly remembered as one the strongest, bravest, and most valiant fighters to go against racism and prejudice. His very name alone conjures up thoughts and images of bravery and influence. Except… Nelson isn’t really his name.
That’s right! At the time of his birth in South Africa in 1918, he most certainly wasn’t named Nelson at all. He was actually named Rolihlahla Mandela. But that name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. When he was a kid, he went to a Christian school, and one of the teachers there decided to take it upon herself to re-name all of her South African native children with “Christian” names in class. She chose Nelson for the young boy, and that was that![8]
2 George Orwell
Before becoming a hit author with books like Animal House and 1984, George Orwell was far removed from being George Orwell. He was actually known as Eric Arthur Blair, living in the doldrums in some of the worst neighborhoods of London and, later, in Paris. When he wasn’t working as a dishwasher and a failed author, he begged his friends and family members for money. And then, he wrote the first book that ever got him noticed: Down and Out in Paris and London.
That book wasn’t a major hit commercially or financially. Still, it did well enough with critics that it started getting him some serious notice in literary circles. In turn, the book’s content was embarrassing enough that Orwell decided he didn’t want to bring shame to his family as a loser living without money in Europe’s biggest cities. So he needed a new pen name under which to write. He turned to some pals for help, and one suggested “George.” Thinking more, Eric realized he’d been inspired throughout his life by England’s countryside—specifically, by the nation’s River Orwell. And thus, George Orwell was born.[9]
1 Ulysses S. Grant
The case of Ulysses S. Grant’s real name is probably one of the strangest mix-ups in famous-name history. When he was a child, the future president was officially born as Hiram Ulysses Grant. However, his parents opted to call him Hiram. But he didn’t like that name, so as he got older, he switched things up and used his middle name, asking everybody to call him Ulysses. Story complete, right? He was just “Ulysses” forever after? Well, not quite.
You may be wondering about one thing: Maybe the “Ulysses” name found its eventual slot, but what about that troublesome “S” middle initial? That popped up when Grant was applying to attend West Point. The congressman who nominated him for the application assumed “Ulysses” was the young man’s first name, which was a safe assumption to make. But he needed a middle initial for the application, so the congressman dropped the “S” in there.
That initial represented “Simpson,” which was the maiden name of Grant’s mother. The young Grant, eager to get into West Point and get on with his life, figured it was a good idea not to go against the congressman’s mistake. So, for the rest of his life, Ulysses began signing his name “Ulysses S. Grant.” And from there, that became the future president’s name.[10]