You’ve been spelling Oprah Winfrey wrong all these years.
But that’s OK, because so has she.
The multimedia mogul was born Orpah Gail Winfrey, her first name coming from the Bible’s Book of Ruth, with Orpah being the titular convert’s sister-in-law.
But, as Winfrey explained to the blown-away host of Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, “I was a kid and nobody knew how to spell it.”
So, even though her birthday certificate says Orpah, people mispronounced it so often, the future daytime talk show queen just went with Oprah—and quite the surprise awaited as she came of age.
“I didn’t learn until I was probably 20 or something,” the 72-year-old admitted, “that, ‘Oh, this isn’t really my name.'”
Keke Palmer quipped back, “Wow, we have so much in common, because I’m actually ‘Eekey.'”
Nope, “I’m just bein’ stupid,” she added with a laugh, but the We Love Boosters actress wasborn Lauren Keyana Palmer.
Which Winfrey knew, of course. But if you were today-years-old when you found out—about either of these star’s given name—well then just add them to the long list of celebrities who go by alternate monikers.
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Oprah Winfrey Shocks Keke Palmer by Revealing Her Real Name
Even Paul McCartney isn’t who you think he is—TheBeatleslegend is actually James Paul McCartney, but he shared on his website in 2023 that even his parents addressed him (literally) by his middle name so that he and his father James McCartney would know whose mail to open.
Not concerned about passing this conundrum on to the next generation, Paul’s son is James Louis McCartney.
Though it could be mistaken for a middle name, Winfrey’s fellow book club maven Laura Jeanne ReeseWitherspoonstarted going by her mother’s maiden name when she got to Hollywood in 1990. Which, as she remindedNicole Kidman during a 2024 sit-down with Vanity Fair, is why she calls their Big Little Lies costar Laura Dern by her last name.
Witherspoon explained, “We can’t both be Laura.”
But at least they have different lastnames. A lot of performers adopt a stage name because, if there was already one of you in the Screen Actors Guild, then you had to be someone else—as Michael John Douglas found out before he became Michael Keaton.
“I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” the Beetlejuicestar told Peoplein 2024 of how he found his alternate surname. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’”
Jamie Foxx, meanwhile, plucked his whole stage name from the ether, having entered this world as Eric Marlon Bishop.
Because, as he explained on The Late Show With David Letterman in 2014, when he started doing stand-up, he thought a more gender-neutral name might better his chances of getting onstage if he was mistaken for one of the relatively few women amid “like 1,000 guys who showed up.”
Read on to find out more celebrities’ real names:
Steve Jennings/FilmMagicAustin Richard PostCongratulations to Post Malone, who incorporated his surname into his stage name. However, the rapper does prefer his close friends to call him by his real name.
During the 2024 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift referred to him as “Austin” when they won the Best Collaboration award for their duet “Fortnight.”Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty ImagesAubrey Frances Anderson-EmmonsThough she portrayed Lilly on Modern Family under the name Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, the actress changed her moniker to Frances Anderson to mark her era as a musician.
“Frances is actually part of my legal name—it’s my middle name, and it’s after my mom’s old family friend,” she explained in a 2025 E! News interview. “I thought, one, it was a bit shorter than ‘Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.’ I do have a long, hyphenated last name.”Kevin Mazur/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W MagazineHannah Fanning & Mary FanningThe siblings grew up going up by their middle names, which they chose to use when they entered Hollywood: Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning.
As Elle explained, because their mother went by her middle name, it made sense for the sisters to do the same.
“It was awkward in school when they were calling roll call,” she recalled to Glamour in 2016, “because they’d go, ‘Mary? Mary?’ Kids would be like, ‘There’s no Mary here.’ I’d awkwardly raise my hand, like, ‘Uh, it’s me.’”Clifton Prescod/BravoWilliam Carl RadkeThe Summer House star shocked Bravo fans by revealing his legally given first name isn’t actually Carl.
“My I.D. and my passport—my first name is William,” Carl—who has appeared on the reality show for all nine seasons—told PopViewers in August 2025. “So, my middle name is Carl, but I’ve always, since day one, been called Carl.”Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup for Disney/ShutterstockSterling Kelby BrownSterling K. Brown went by his middle name Kelby until he was a teenager.
“My dad’s name is Sterling Brown Jr., my grandfather is Sterling Brown Sr.,” he said during an April 2025 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I wanted my own name and it felt like Sterling was an old man’s name.”
But years after his dad died from a heart attack, the This Is Us alum decided to revert back to his first name as a way to honor his father.
“Because he passed away when I was 10, by the time I turned 16 and I hadn’t heard his name for five, five-and-a-half years,” he continued. “I was like, ‘I kinda just want to hear that name again.’ So I asked people to call me Sterling.”Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty ImagesNicholas Dylan EfronThe Traitors winner shared on E!’s Hot Goss that his real name is Nicholas Dylan Harrison Efron, but he’s “axed off” his first name and prefers Dylan. As he explained, “That’s my first name and everything gets bumped up,” making Harrison his middle name now.Gerardo Mora/Getty ImagesAndrew Mignogna, Matthew Mignogna & Joey MignognaAndrew Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence and Joey Lawrence adopted a new last name in their careers. Joey—whose middle name is Lawrence—was the first to do so after a talent agent criticized the family surname.Amy Sussman/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo BankKatherine Victoria LitwackKat Dennings adopted a stage name at age 9, years before she made her official onstage acting debut on a 2000 episode of Sex and the City.
The 2 Broke Girls alum told Kylie Kelce on the March 13, 2025 episode of her podcast Not Gonna Lie With Kylie Kelce that she didn’t think her real name name should “be displayed on a poster.”
The actress drew inspiration for her stage name from Christina Ricci’s character Kat in the film Casper as well as the surname of Janine Denni, the French wife of late The Black Cauldron author Lloyd Alexander, a writer she said was her mother’s best friend.Emma McIntyre/WireImageCheryl SarkisianFor more than three decades, Cher was made to believe that her legal first name was Cherilyn. It wasn’t until the late ’70s, when she obtained her birth certificate in order to change her full name to just Cher, that she discovered that she had been registered as “Cheryl.”
In her 2024 memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the pop icon recalled her mom Georgia Holt’s reaction to this discovery.
She said her mother, who gave birth to her at age 19, responded, “Let me look at that!” and then, recalling her postpartum experience, added, “I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break.”Prince Williams/WireImageCollins Obinna ChibuezeThe outlaw country star adopted Shaboozey as his nickname and later used it as his official alias as a music artist after his Virginia high school misspelled his surname that way.(Disney/Eric McCandless)Katheryn Elizabeth HudsonThough the singer initially released a Christian album under her birth name in 2001, she felt the stage name Katy Perry—inspired by her mom’s maiden name—might leave pop fans more in awe, awe, awe. Mike Coppola/Getty Images for iHeartMediaBelcalis AlmanzarCardi B took on the name Bacardi after family and friends started calling her sister Hennessy. Later on she shortened the name to something that suited her quite a bit more.Tim Rooke/ShutterstockRachel Meghan MarkleBefore she became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was briefly known as Rachel. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for StagecoachEilleen Regina EdwardsShania Twain shared the origin story of her stage name during an appearance on Apple Music’s Home Now Radio: “In short, I was born, Eilleen Regina Edwards, and then I was adopted and I became Eilleen Regina Twain. Then I became a professional singer and I needed a stage name that sounded a little less like my grandmother’s name, because I’m named after my grandmother, both my grandmothers, Eilleen and Regina. I think, in my mind, I was just not really wanting to be called my grandmother’s name onstage, so I decided to change it to Shania Twain. I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born.”Christopher Victorio/ShutterstockKayleigh Rose AmstutzThe “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s onstage persona—Chappell Roan—has always been a “drag project,” allowing her to set boundaries and separate her personal life from the industry.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesJelena Noura HadidOddly enough, Gigi Hadid got her stage name in school when the teacher would confuse her and a girl named Helena. Since her mom called her “gigi” as a term of endearment at home, she told the teacher to just call her Gigi and it simply stuck. Monica Schipper/Getty ImagesMark VincentIf you’re looking for an explosive action-star name, how about Vin Diesel instead?Chelsea Lauren/REX/ShutterstockDestiny Hope CyrusMiley Cyrus’ bright smile is what inspired her childhood nickname, Smiley. Eventually the name was shortened to Miley and it stuck. Kevin Mazur/WireImagePeter Gene HernandezApparently the singer looked more like a Bruno than a Peter, so one day his dad started calling him Bruno. Ever since, he has been known as Bruno Mars.Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for Live NationStefani GermanottaBefore the meat dresses and chart-topping music, Lady Gaga was just an everyday girl from New York.Rich Fury/Getty ImagesDaniel SudeikisJason Sudeikis confirmed on Today that he was named Daniel after his father, but following some confusion, his mom started using his middle name Jason to avoid confusion. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion PicturesEmily StoneEmma Stone ended adopting this stage name after finding out that the Screen Actors Guild already had a member registered under her birthname. Jim Smeal/REX/ShutterstockLaura Jeanne Reese WitherspoonTurns out Reese isn’t even Reese Witherspoon’s middle name. The actress chose the moniker in honor of her mother, whose maiden name is Reese.Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagicElizabeth Woolridge GrantEvery artist has an alter ego, and Lana Del Rey just happens to be the persona of choice for the singer. Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesChristopher Edwin BreauxIn 2014, Frank Ocean legally changed his name because, why not? Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca FestivalElizabeth Stamatina FeyA little known fact about 30 Rock’s Tina Fey is that she is actually named Elizabeth. The comedian made a not so subtle tribute to her birth name by naming her character Liz Lemon.Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesCalvin BroadusThis pioneer of West Coast rap would later go on to be known as Snoop Dogg.Lester Cohen/Getty Images for NARASElla Marija Lani Yelich-O’ConnorTurns out the “Royals” singer is really into learning about the aristocracy, hence the reason why she chose the name Lorde, but with a feminine ‘e.’Laura Cavanaugh/Getty ImagesEnrique MoralesBefore he started shaking his bonbon for the masses, music superstar Ricky Martin went by this everyday name.Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesAmethyst KellyIt’s hard to believe that Iggy Azalea was born Amethyst Kelly!photos
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