In the first volume of her autobiography, pop culture icon Cher revealed that she’d been “shocked” to learn her real first name in 1979. She only learned the truth at age 33, when she went through the legal process to officially change her name.

Many famous people go by names that aren’t remotely close to what was printed on their birth certificates. Whether it’s to be more unique or recognizable or to keep some semblance of personal privacy, a lot of celebrities don’t use their full legal names professionally. Some go by their middle names or a variation of their birth names, while others create brand-new public designations for themselves. 

Here are the surprising real names of the “Goddess of Pop” and a few other notable celebrities.

Mickey Rooney – Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.

Mickey Rooney had one of the longest acting careers in Hollywood history, spanning almost nine decades! He started in showbiz when he was a child, and appeared in his last film, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, just weeks before his death at 93. 

When Rooney was born in 1920, he was named Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr. after his father. The elder Yule had emigrated from Scotland to New York in 1892 and became a vaudeville performer, opting to use “Joe Yule” as his professional moniker. Rooney’s mother was also an entertainer, and the couple introduced their son (nicknamed “Sonny”) to the “family business” when he was just two weeks old, bringing him out on the vaudeville circuit. 

He appeared in his first movie, a short film called Not to Be Trusted, at age six. The following year, his mother legally changed his name to Mickey McGuire after the title character in a series of comedy shorts he starred in. When the series had run its course, he had to change it again to avoid legal issues. His manager said that something ending in a “y” would be good, and his mother suggested “Rooney” after someone she’d known in vaudeville. He became Mickey Rooney and this second official name change stuck.

According to a story Rooney recounted more than once, Walt Disney named his famous cartoon character Mickey Mouse after a chance encounter the actor allegedly had with the animator. Details of Rooney’s account changed in retellings, however, and there’s no evidence that he was indeed Mickey Mouse’s namesake. It was Disney’s wife, Lillian, who urged him to change the character’s name from Mortimer to Mickey.

Veronica Lake – Constance Frances Marie Ockelman

Veronica Lake is remembered today for her signature side-swept hair and the femme fatale roles she played, but before she became famous she was known as “Connie.” Born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman in 1922, the actress later took her stepfather’s last name, Keane.

Her family moved from New York to Miami to California, where the aspiring actress began taking small film parts until she was chosen for a role in 1941’s I Wanted Wings. Producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. (yes, his real name) thought up her new handle. “Veronica was for my classic features and Lake was for the coolness people felt looking into my eyes,” she once recalled.

Although she was one of the most sought-after movie stars of the 1940s, Lake struggled with a drinking problem and mental illness that eventually destroyed her career and personal life. She developed a reputation for being rude and difficult on set, which might have led to screenwriter Raymond Chandler giving her the unflattering nickname “Moronica Lake” after her work on his 1946 film The Blue Dahlia.

Chevy Chase – Cornelius Crane Chase

Comedic actor and writer Chevy Chase has been immortalized in beloved goofball films like Caddyshack, Fletch, and National Lampoon’s Vacation film franchise as well as the TV show Community. He first shot to fame as the creator and first anchor of the Weekend Update segment on Saturday Night Live, which hit the airwaves in 1975. Beyond his professional work, Chase is infamous for some allegedly caustic behavior and nasty off-screen feuds with colleagues ranging from fellow SNL-er Bill Murray to Community co-star Donald Glover. 

He was born Cornelius Crane Chase in 1943 and named for his mother’s stepfather, a wealthy philanthropist and heir to a manufacturing company specializing in bathroom fixtures. Chase’s grandmother gave him the nickname Chevy, taken from a popular fifteenth-century song called “The Ballad of Chevy Chase.” The folk ballad about a battle on the Anglo-Scottish border was well known throughout England and Scotland in olden times, and Chase’s grandma thought the nickname Chevy was a fitting tribute to the family’s Scottish heritage. 

The name of the area now known as Chevy Chase, Maryland, was likely based on the Cheviot Hills described in that same ballad.  

TV trivia: There’s a reference to Chase’s family history in the storyline of Community. His character, Piercinald Anastasia “Pierce” Hawthorne, has a father named Cornelius Hawthorne who’s the heir to Hawthorne Industries… a company that makes bathroom products. 

Cher – Cheryl Sarkisian

In 1979, Cher wanted to simplify her life by shortening her first name and dropping her four surnames — her birth name Sarkisian and the last names of her stepfather and two ex-husbands). Then 33, the singer had been divorced twice and as she explained to Johnny Carson on his talk show, people didn’t know what to call her. “It’s better for me than having people wonder if they should call me Mrs. Allman or Mrs. Bono or Mrs. Bono Allman or Miss Cher or whatever,” she said.

Until then, she thought her real name was Cherilyn. However, when she applied for a copy of her birth certificate she saw that it listed her as “Cheryl.” 

Her mother, Georgia Holt, was just a teenager in 1946 when Cher was born and didn’t know what to name her daughter. Holt told the attending nurse, ‘Well, Lana Turner’s my favorite actress and her little girl’s called Cheryl. My mother’s name is Lynda, so how about Cherilyn?” Somehow, it was entered as simply “Cheryl.” 

After Cher learned her real name and confronted her mom about it, Holt asked her for some grace and explained that she had been exhausted and “in pain” when she’d come up with Cherilyn. It’s not clear how the administrative mixup occurred.

John Wayne – Marion Robert Morrison

He’s one of the most famous actors in Hollywood history, but John Wayne wasn’t born with that name.

Born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa in 1907, the future star’s family moved to California when he was six or seven. Around this time, he got his most enduring nickname thanks to his pet and constant companion, an Airedale Terrier named “Duke.” Local firefighters started calling him “Big Duke” and his dog “Little Duke” when they were spotted around town together. 

In 1928, “Big Duke” nabbed a job as a set hand for the John Ford film Mother Machree. Ford was one of the most influential and prolific directors in Hollywood’s Golden Age, and the two men later worked on 14 films together. 

Big Duke’s first starring role was in the 1930 Fox film The Big Trail, directed by Raoul Walsh. Walsh felt that the actor needed a name less feminine and more marketable than Marion, and chose “Anthony Wayne” after the Revolutionary War general. The head of Fox Studios felt that Anthony sounded “too Italian” and suggested ”John.” 

Whoopi Goldberg – Caryn Elaine Johnson

The comedian, actor, and TV personality known as Whoopi Goldberg was born with the boring-by-comparison name Caryn Elaine Johnson in 1955.

“Caryn” turned into “Whoopi” thanks to the classic flatulence-mimicking practical joke device called the whoopee cushion. In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, Goldberg related some embarrassing personal details that inspired her unusual name. “When you’re performing on stage, you never really have time to go into the bathroom and close the door. So if you get a little gassy, you’ve got to let it go,” she admitted. “So people used to say to me, You are like a whoopee cushion.” 

Goldberg willingly adopted this new stage name, referring to herself as “Whoopi Cushión.” Her mother, however, worried she wouldn’t be taken seriously as a talented actor with that silly name, so she eventually swapped out “Cushion” for “Goldberg.” She borrowed the last name “from a Jewish ancestor,” explaining that her family has Baptist, Buddhist, Catholic, and Jewish roots.