These celebrities are not known by their own name

Queen B has it, sort of, at least. For her, Sasha Fierce is really an alter ego, the stage beast that comes out when she's on tour. Another stage beast is Peter Gene Hernandez. Never heard of him? Sure you have. That's actually the real name of Bruno Mars. Excuuuuse me? That does sound a lot less uptown funky. But he's not unique in this regard, as there are surprisingly many celebs who don't use their real name. Some reasons for this are very logical (for example, because there is already a colleague with the same name), some are a bit... more noticeable. Like Pete's reason, uh, I mean Bruno.

1. Bruno Mars. Real name: Peter Gene Hernandez
Bruno is named after Bruno Sammartino, who was a wrestler. The Mars part? Because women would say he was ‘out of this world’. Oooooké.

2. Gigi Hadid. Real name: Jelena Hadid
Mother Yolanda gave her this nickname very early on and it stuck quite a bit. Eventually, Jelena was completely kicked out.

3. Marilyn Monroe. Real name: Norma Jeane Mortenson
Not to be rude, but I don't think Norma is necessarily a name for a mega bombshell like Marilyn Monroe. No offense to all the Normas reading this, by the way.

4. Miley Cyrus. Real name: Destiny Hope Cyrus
Just like with Gigi, Miley is a nickname that stuck. She was always laughing as a child, which is why people called her ‘Smiley’. Later, the 'S' dropped and the rest is history.

5. Katy Perry. Real name: Katheryn Hudson
Perry as a last name doesn't come out of nowhere: it's her mother's last name. She took it because she didn't want to create confusion with actress Kate Hudson.

6. Natalie Portman. Real name: Neta-Lee Hershlag
Wow, that's quite different. A creative way of spelling Natalie, that Neta-Lee. I understand why she went for the more obvious option. Portman was her grandmother's last name.

7. Lana del Rey. Real name: Elizabeth Woolridge Grant
Her stage name sounds a lot more exotic than her real name. In daily life, she is still really called Elizabeth; Lana del Rey is more her alter ego when she wanted to become a music star.

8. Olivia Wilde. Real name: Olivia Cockburn
I understand why she wanted to get rid of that last name. But why Wilde? She acted in a high school play of Oscar Wilde and became a big fan of the writer.

9. Drake. Real name: Aubrey Graham
Okay, okay, a bit of cheating here: Drake is his middle name. But what were those parents thinking? Let's give our son a very decent, good first name (Aubrey) and a striking cool middle name (Drake)? I would immediately choose that striking cool name.

10. Jamie Foxx. Real name: Eric Marlon Bishop
HAHA. This is very different from how we know him. And the reason he came up with Jamie Foxx is also quite striking: there weren't many female comedians around, so he wanted a unisex name. Then the audience expected a woman and tadaaa: a man. Guaranteed success, as it turns out.

11. Calvin Harris. Real name: Adam Richard Wiles
This musician didn't want people to immediately get a good picture of him, so he chose a stage name that didn't clearly indicate his background.

12. Nicki Minaj. Real name: Onika Tanya Maraj
She doesn't like that fake name at all. ‘In one of the first deals I signed, that guy kept insisting that I had to change my name to Minaj. I didn't want to, but he convinced me. I've always hated it.’

13. Portia de Rossi. Real name: Amanda Lee Rogers
Okay, these two names really have nothing to do with each other? She changed it at fifteen, saying she struggled with being attracted to women and therefore wanted to create a completely different person she could identify with.

14. Whoopi Goldberg. Real name: Caryn Johnson
She got her first name because she always imitated a whoopee cushion when she just started in the business. Well, that name stuck.

15. John Legend. Real name: John Roger Stephens
It's true. This man really changed his last name because he thought of himself as a ‘legend’. ‘I thought: let's just do it. People will pay attention and I will make the name come true, or not.’