List of Stage Names

This list of stage names lists performers, and others related to the entertainment industry, alphabetically by their stage name's surname, followed by their birth name. Individuals who dropped their last name and substituted their middle name as their last name are listed. Also listed are individuals who have changed the spelling of one or more of their legal names, such as Willem Dafoe. In many cases, performers have legally changed their name to their stage name.

People are not listed here if they fall into one or more of the following categories.

• Those who changed their surname due primarily to marriage:
  • Living: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Sheila Allen, Jules Asner, Jaid Barrymore, Joy Behar, Lynn Borden, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dr. Joyce Brothers, L. Scott Caldwell‎, Kate Capshaw, Nancy Carell, Lynn Carlin, Kathleen Chalfant, Marge Champion, Jane Connell, Pamela Des Barres, Bo Derek, Jenna Elfman, Linda Ellerbee, Anita Ellis, Marla Gibbs, Kathie Lee Gifford, Sally Gilpin, Estelle Harris, Rohini Hattangadi, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandra Kerns, Lucy Lawless, Rosaleen Linehan, Loretta Lynn, Sheila MacRae, Elaine May, Sylvia Miles, Demi Moore, Nancy O'Dell, Michelle Phillips, Priscilla Presley, Noomi Rapace, Johanna Ray, Mimi Rogers, Jan Rooney, Jeri Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Zohra Sehgal, Hillary B. Smith, Ronnie Spector, Stella Stevens, Anna Strasberg, Jennifer Bini Taylor, Linda Thorson, Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
  • Deceased: Jane Ace, Theoni V. Aldredge, Florence Arliss, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Beatrice Arthur, Dorothy Ashby, Sylvia Ashley, B. Constance Barry, Frances Bay, Gertrude Berg, Frances Bergen, Shirl Bernheim, Barbara Billingsley, Faye Blackstone, Helen Boatwright, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Marie Carandini, Olive Carey, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Irene Castle, Cyd Charisse, Yelena Chernykh, Alice Coltrane, Lady Diana Cooper, Ellen Corby, Mae Costello, Ida Cox, Ruby Dandridge, Marie de Forest, Dame Pat Evison, Margaret Field, Hope Garber, Lucile Gleason, Laurence Grivot, Alaina Reed Hall, Grayson Hall, Dona Hardy, Cassandra Harris, Dixie Haygood, Edith Head, Dolores Hope, Faith Hubley, Josephine Hull, Marketa Kimbrell, Jessie Royce Landis, Gracie Lantz, Evelyn Lear, Mimi Lerner, Peggy Lloyd, Kathleen Lockhart, Judith Lowry, Toni Mannix, Nobu McCarthy, Ruth McDevitt, Patricia Merbreier, Anna Karen Morrow, Harriet Nelson, Shirley Collie Nelson, Lupe Ontiveros, Joan Orenstein, Mecha Ortiz, Ethel Owen, Dory Previn, Dottie Rambo, Anne Ramsey, Dana Reeve, Estelle Reiner, Malvina Reynolds, Sylvia Robinson, Blossom Rock, Shirley Russell, Irene Ryan, Zelda Sears, Joan Shawlee, Hilda Simms, Susan Raab Simonson, Alison Skipworth, Zypora Spaisman, Elizabeth Spriggs, Kathy Staff, Paula Strasberg, Annette Vadim, Alice Van-Springsteen, Florence Vidor, Sippie Wallace, Yafa Yarkoni, Norma Zimmer.
• Their stage forename is not their birth forename, but is a middle name, as with Paul McCartney and Marie Osmond: these are their real middle names, not stage names.
• People referred to by merely a shortened or informal version of their given name: Bob Barker, Ricky Martin, and Jimmie Rodgers.
• People from Spanish and/or Portuguese-speaking countries and the Philippines if their professional name is a combination of a birth forename and either of their two family names. For more information, see Spanish and Hispanic American naming customs, Filipino names, and Portuguese names.
• People known by generational/family nicknames: for example, Trey Anastasio, whose full name is Ernest Joseph Anastasio III.
• People who may be popularly, though not professionally, known by a nickname, such as Robert John "Mutt" Lange.
• People who use names that they legally adopted before they entered the entertainment industry. Here are some examples:
  • Kiri Te Kanawa was born as Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne, New Zealand, but was adopted as an infant by Thomas Te Kanawa, a Māori, and his wife, Nell.
  • Julie Andrews was born Julia Elizabeth Wells, but took the name Andrews when she moved in with her stepfather as a child.
  • Missy and Tracey Gold were born Melissa Fisher and Tracey Claire Fisher, respectively; the surname Gold is a shortened form of the surname they acquired upon adoption by their stepfather, Harry Goldstein.
  • Art Linkletter was born Gordon Arthur Kelly, but his name was changed to Arthur Gordon Linkletter when he was adopted in infancy.
  • Grace Lee Whitney was born Mary Ann Chase, but her name was changed when she was adopted as a small child.
  • Julie Goodyear was born Julie Kemp; she adopted her stepfather's surname.
• People known by a single name that is one of their legal names. For example, Björk, whose stage name appears to be an original creation, is part of her full Icelandic name, Björk Guðmundsdóttir. Her second name is a patronymic instead of a family name, following Icelandic naming conventions. "Björk" is not a stage name but how any Icelander would refer to her, casually or formally.

The following are listed here for the following reasons:

• Tupac Shakur is listed here, but under the stage name 2Pac. He was born either Lesane Parish Crooks or Parish Lesane Crooks, depending on the source, but his name was changed in early childhood to Tupac Amaru Shakur.
• Elton John is listed here because he used the name professionally before he legally adopted it in 1972.