My children have my last name as a second middle name. H’s dad had his mother’s maiden name and not the same last name as his siblings. I always tell H that he’s extremely lucky to have that last name because no way in heck would any of my children have been given the last name of his dad’s siblings. It’s a name that would inspire bad jokes, whereas the one he has is common enough to be familiar to people but not so common that every other person has it.
andy grove from intel corp. a great leader and pioneer in technology
was born András István Gróf
I saw him at Blossom Music Center in Ohio when he had this name and was totally not famous. He was the opening act for Blood Sweat and Tears who were over two hours late. He just played his guitar and sang for the whole two hours. He was awesome. We all wondered if he would become a big name…and he did…but with a different big name.
I saw a production of Twelfth Night at the Folger Theater in the early 1970s that had music composed by the guy who co-wrote “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (Bill Danoff)- I liked it so much I asked if I could have a copy of it. I still have the mimeographs somewhere with my music.
Reportedly, Mayor Billy D’s father was a heel, so he adopted his mother’s family name as his own surname. As for other folks whose “celebrity name” is different from their birth name…
Ramon Estevez, a.k.a. Martin Sheen (never legally changed his name)
Carlos Estevez, a.k.a. Charlie Sheen
Jo Raquel Tejada, a.k.a. Raquel Welch
Richard Starke, a.k.a. Ringo Starr
Neta Herslag, a.k.a. Natalie Portman
Ellen Cohen, a.k.a. Cass Elliott
Betty Joan Perske, aka Lauren Bacall. She went by Betty in her private life. My grandmother knew her in NY when both were young, and shared her name.
An interesting variant is people who recover their original names, or try to, after using a stage name for some time. A good example is John Mellencamp, f/k/a John Cougar. Wesley Stace, f/k/a John Wesley Harding, lives around here and performs frequently with his real name. Black Thought (of The Roots) mounted what looked like a thoughtful campaign over a number of years to establish “brand equity” for his real name, Tariq Trotter, so he could use it professionally.
Paul Hewson most likely goes by that name in real life.