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In Brief

Ten celebrities who changed their names

by The Week team
9 Aug 2018
Go to: Ten celebrities who changed their names: from Meghan Markle to Katie Price
Michael Caine

Getty Images

Michael Caine - born: Maurice Joseph Micklewhite

”

The Caine Mutiny

Jamie Foxx

2018 Getty Images

Jamie Foxx - born: Eric Marlon Bishop

In an interview with David Letterman in 2015, Foxx explained that he changed his name when he first began to do comedy, as he thought that an ambiguous name gender-wise would garner him more attention. He described signing up for an open-mic night: “I noticed that like 1,000 guys showed up and only three girls, but the three girls would always get a spot. So I went to the list and wrote down a unisex name... Jamie Foxx.”

Katie Price

Getty Images

Katie Price 

Calvin Harris

2018 Getty Images

Calvin Harris - born: Adam Richard Wiles

“

”

”

Natalie Portman

2013 Getty Images

Natalie Portman - born: Neta-lee Hershlag

Charlie Sheen

Getty Images

Charlie Sheen - born: Carlos Irwin Estevez

Sheen, unlike his brother and fellow actor Emilio Estevez, decided to follow in the footsteps of his father Martin Sheen, who changed his surname from Estevez in the 1950s. 

“I thought, given what Dad had done and did do for so many years, someone should perpetuate and prolong the name Sheen,” he told 

The Guardian

 in 2016. “Charlie Sheen just sounds better than Charlie Estevez.” 

The elder Sheen said he took his new name from a CBS casting director Robert Dale Martin and a televangelist Fulton J. Sheen, whom he said was a great actor.

Helen Mirren

2018 Getty Images

Helen Mirren - born: Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironoff

The British actress’s father changed the family's last name from Mironoff to Mirren in the 1950s. Mirren then simplified her first name to Helen when she embarked on her acting career.

Katy Perry

2016 Getty Images

Katy Perry - born: Katheryn Hudson

Ben Kingsley

2017 Getty Images

Ben Kingsley - born: Krishna Pandit Bhanji

Meghan Markle

2018 Getty Images

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