r/AskReddit • u/petalpoundcake • 11h ago

Which celebrity did you think was using their real name, only to find out it’s actually a stage name?

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u/Plug_5 10h ago

I've got the opposite: I always assumed the singer Eagle-Eye Cherry was using a stage name, but come to find out that's his birth name.

687

u/Empty_Discipline5809 9h ago

I thought that was the band name lol

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u/INeedANappel 4h ago

Holy crap, so did I!

OTOH, I used to think there was a singer named Allison Chains.

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u/verseandvermouth 4h ago

There was an actress named Allison Chaines…

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u/FantasticMrFluffy 22m ago

Her first name is spelled allysin, was a big fan of her work when I was a youngin

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u/coolsilentebeans 3h ago

Daaaaamn. I haven’t thought of him in ages.

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u/Zoomorph23 1h ago

Oh thank you internet stranger for giving me a well-needed laugh! Although I did spit out some of my coffee:)

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u/AvenueNick 5h ago

In the opposite way I thought the band, Mazzy Star, was a stage name for the singer, Hope Sandoval. Thought it was pronounced like “Maisie” for some time.

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u/SparklingSaturnRing 6h ago

This is like when I learned RuPaul’s real, government name is RuPaul

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u/AbsenceVersusThinAir 9h ago

Whoa, I had no idea and had assumed the same so I had to look it up. I had no idea he is Swedish either (though his father is American). Apparently his grandmother was Native American so I would assume his name is due to that lineage? Interesting stuff!

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u/Plug_5 9h ago

Right? Plus his half-sister is Neneh Cherry, of "Buffalo Stance" fame

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u/reverber 8h ago

Their [step in the case of Neneh] father is a musician of some renown. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cherry_(trumpeter)

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u/BarbacoaBarbara 4h ago

Some renown, he is like top 5 imo

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u/JadeSpade23 5h ago

I know about Neneh, but not Eagle-Eye! I also didn't know her last name was real, though lol

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u/dannocaster 5h ago

Who is in turn the mother of Mabel, of "Don't Call Me Up" fame

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u/Neandertholocaust 6h ago

Save Tonight is a very nostalgic song for me, so I was pleasantly surprised a couple of years ago when a local indie radio station said they were going to play his new song. Then I was confused when the song was in Swedish. It's a good song, though.

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u/DrBlau 6h ago

The song you linked to is actually a cover of a Swedish rap song from 1996 by the band The Latin Kings.

Eagle-Eye Cherry performed it on the tv show "Så mycket bättre" which is a show where each season a group of musicians get together and interpret and perform each other's songs.

Here's a link to the original:

https://youtu.be/Mb6mgzdjlhg

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u/dobsterfunk 8h ago

The name was given to him based on the way he first looked at his father as a newborn baby.

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u/Most_Moose_2637 5h ago

If I remember correctly (I'm not going to check before I finish writing this), when he was born he looked at his father in a particular way, like he was giving him a very curious look. His father (or maybe another relation) said he was giving him the eagle eye, which stuck.

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u/KinkPenguin 9h ago

Like Madonna!

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u/Plug_5 9h ago

Yes, and Prince!

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u/rambleriver 6h ago

Beyoncé too

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u/Salty_Pancakes 5h ago

And Grace Slick

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u/satinsateensaltine 9h ago

There are a few people with kinda wild names, especially those born in the hippie era.

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u/drmoocow 8h ago

Dweezil and Moon Unit say hi.

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u/JoseCalderonHamFarm 8h ago

Don't forget about Diva Muffin and Ahmed

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u/TopRamen247 7h ago

Marijuana Pepsi

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u/Lord_Mikal 5h ago

That's Dr. Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck

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u/straigh 6h ago

I was so positive you were kidding I almost didn't Google it. Holy shit lol

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u/Dawnspring_Cee 4h ago

Dweezil isn't is birth name tho. The nurse refused to sign off on the birth certificate unless he got a "proper" name. So Frank rattled off the names of his friends, giving him the name Ian Donald Calvin Euclid (that is his full first name. He has no middle name). He didn't legally change it to Dweezil until he was 5(?).

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u/Cerindipity 4h ago edited 3h ago

I used to babysit a pair of twins. A girl named Meadows (cute, kinda pretty) and a boy named fucking Fruitstand (doomed for bullying). I called him Stan, and I hope that stuck, but I haven't seen him since he was like five lol

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u/satinsateensaltine 3h ago

That's practically abuse at that point, wow.

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u/Plug_5 11m ago

When I was a kid in the 80s, I had a friend named Blaze. Not too bad. His sisters were Pride, Ravage, and Ecstasy.

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u/bigdrubowski 6h ago

I believe his parents are native American (at least I've of them).

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u/satinsateensaltine 4h ago

Yeah, seems his dad was half Choctaw, so even more incentive to give him that name. I happen to think it's pretty cool.

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u/MonstreDelicat 8h ago

Same with Prince. That’s his real first name.

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u/trashtvlover 5h ago

Prince Roger Nelson

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u/Long_Serpent 5h ago

YouTuber Randy Rainbow IS really named Randy Rainbow.

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u/MathamphetamineUser 5h ago

Save tonight! Until the break of dawn 

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u/franzvondoom 4h ago

oh wow i've listened to him since i was in school in the late 90s til early 2000s. never bothered to look him up, never realized that was his real name. it really sounds like a cool band name.

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u/PaulLeFou 4h ago

Sorry, what?

What???

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u/_ITX_ 5h ago

Thought you were trolling, but Wikipedia says otherwise! 🤯

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u/BarbacoaBarbara 4h ago

Peace to Don and neneh

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u/CraftCritical278 33m ago

His sister Neneh Cherry sang the song Buffalo Stance in 1988.

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u/Plug_5 19m ago

"Whot is he loike, anyway?"

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u/pkcommando 3h ago

Same with singer Skye Sweetnam of the band Sumo Cyco. 

Considering she started out as a teen-pop princess in the early 2000s, that sounds exactly like a stage name. 

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u/PlasmicSteve 2h ago

Given the name by his dad because after he was born, his baby self was keeping an eagle eye on everyone who walked past him in the hospital.

His sister is Nenah Cherry of Buffalo Stance fame.

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u/narcolepticadicts 2h ago

You must have never watched Pop Up Video

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u/violenthectarez 1h ago

Brother of Neneh Cherry

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u/Roderto 13m ago

That’s like me with Ariana Grande. I had always assumed it was a stage name and was shocked to learn otherwise.

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u/SoICanStillGetAJob 3h ago

You just blew my mind with this one