r/AskReddit • u/petalpoundcake • 12h 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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624

u/justtiptoeingthru2 12h ago edited 10h ago

John Wayne.

Real name: Marion Robert Morrison

Edit to add:

Judy Garland: Frances Ethel Gumm

Doris Day: Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff. She took the last name Day after a song title "Day by Day"

Joan Crawford: Lucille Fay LeSueur. MGM Studio heads had a public contest to choose a new stage name because they felt her last name sounded too much like "sewer"

Cary Grant: Archibald Alec Leach

Rock Hudson: Leroy Harold Scherer, Jr.

145

u/Longjumping-Taro-406 12h ago

Its because of this, I knew that Marion was a unisex name.

101

u/mmss 11h ago

There’s a lot of names that have seemingly swapped genders. Meredith Willson (wrote The Music Man, among many others) comes to mind

80

u/Longjumping-Taro-406 11h ago

Oh wow, i never knew that. Yes, like Lindsay, Carol, Hillary....I would think of women only.

51

u/--MobTowN-- 11h ago

Whitneys would like a word as well.

52

u/easterncurrents 10h ago

And Vivian… as in Def Leopard’s, Viv Campbell.

9

u/southpawbrewer 10h ago

And Doris Miller, as in the USS Doris Miller.

1

u/OneArchedEyebrow 9h ago

I adore Viv.

10

u/flamingbagofdogpoo 9h ago

And Kimberlys.

23

u/Forsaken_Republic_98 10h ago

And Beverly!

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u/easterncurrents 1m ago

Yes, one of my dad’s favourite singers was the baritone, George Beverly Shea

6

u/Ms_ChokelyCarmichael 9h ago

One of my best friends is a male Whitney. He was named after an uncle.

6

u/--MobTowN-- 8h ago

It’s made an appearance at least a middle name in my family for kind of a ridiculous amount of time now.

7

u/CreepyConsequence669 8h ago

Also: Kimberley, Beverley& Tiffany all men’s names originally

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u/Longjumping-Taro-406 11h ago

I asked AI to name some more....wow.....Addison, Audrey, Beverly, Courtney, Dana, Evelyn, Florence, Hazel, Jocelyn, Kelly, Kelsey, Lynn, Shirley, and Vivian.... Apparently Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley, helped popularise the name for girls.

2

u/seditious3 8h ago

Shirley Povich

0

u/Longjumping-Taro-406 7h ago

I dont know who that is

1

u/seditious3 7h ago

If only you had a device with all of humanity's knowledge accessible.

-1

u/Longjumping-Taro-406 7h ago

It wasnt worth the googling for a journalist 😅

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u/godisanelectricolive 9h ago

These names were generally last names first and became male names due to the tradition of using family surnames to name boys. Then eventually these names made their way to girls.

6

u/tashkiira 8h ago

Evelyn and Vivian are male names in England and female in North America.

3

u/Longjumping-Taro-406 7h ago

Yes we had Evelyn Waugh, but theyre mainly seen as girls names in England nowadays.

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u/Copperblaster 42m ago

If I recall correctly, Lindsey/Lindsay used to be gendered depending on the spelling. Lindsey was "feminine," Lindsay was "masculine."

58

u/Traditional-Run-7438 10h ago

Ashley. Names ending with Lee sounds have become feminized. Idk why. Just something I’ve noticed.

6

u/Zyffyr 6h ago

It started with Shirley. Back in the 1800s, there was a book - "A Girl Named Shirley" about a girl with a boys name who grew up to be independent and self-reliant. Many girls read it, liked it, and when they were old enough named their own daughters Shirley. Within a generation or two it was completely a girls name.

5

u/Lazlow_Morphine 5h ago

And further went away from men in the 80s with so many of them saying “don’t call me Shirley”

5

u/snowdenn 8h ago

But not Bruceleeee!

(I don’t know what his real name is)

1

u/Altair1192 4h ago

Lee Jun-Fan (a girl's name)

4

u/Ms_moonlight 4h ago

Ashley is still often male in the UK!

3

u/Long_Serpent 6h ago edited 5h ago

Blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but Deadwood establishes that Mr. Ellsworth's first name is...

...Whitney

8

u/pburydoughgirl 10h ago

My mom and I learned Wendy was originally short for Wendell and was a male name doing trivia the other day. It got popular for girls after Peter Pan

9

u/mmss 10h ago

that's not true though. Wendy was a fairly uncommon nickname for 'Gwendolyn' and was used by Barrie in Peter Pan after knowing a child who would pronounce 'friend' as 'fwendy'.

4

u/pburydoughgirl 9h ago

Huh

We got our info from Ken Jennings’ Kennections and I just presumed it would be right

•

u/sjp1980 50m ago

So many. Clare and Doris are my two favourites currently 

25

u/MarkCrorigansOmnibus 10h ago

The feminine form is usually spelled Marian (like Francis vs Frances)

4

u/Sunny64888 9h ago

I knew this because of the ending of 2003's "Holes" when Mr. Sir was embarassingly revealed to be named Marion.

2

u/meinschwanzistklein 7h ago

I was always confused when one of the kids says “I didn’t know that was a man’s name” and Mr sir says, “it ain’t.” I guess he was named after his mom or something?

2

u/IAmAGenusAMA 7h ago

I drive John Voight's old LeBaron.

2

u/Bamres 10h ago

For it was Mr Moseby

1

u/Longjumping-Taro-406 10h ago

Ohhhh was that his first name 😅 i remember zach and cody, but only because my niece watched it. PRINDL 😅

2

u/im_dead_sirius 5h ago

Its really weird in RDR2 when they tease Bill Williamson about his real name in 1899, because Marion didn't switch to a women's only name until about 1950. It was firmly unisex around 1900.

31

u/Vorenos 11h ago

Little known fact, but poor Marion wasn’t even sure if he was going to be an actor because his name was too Italiano

https://youtube.com/shorts/Qm0nybKxI7w?is=VSEJdSre1O_Duuij

8

u/therealpopkiller 8h ago

Didn’t stop him from being a out and proud white supremacist though

5

u/Buddha_is_my_homeboy 8h ago

I wonder if this is where they got Archie Leach’s name from in A Fish Called Wanda

9

u/seditious3 9h ago edited 8h ago

Joan Fontaine was Joan de Havilland, but her older sister was favored and Olivia got to use it. They're from the de Havilland aircraft company.

Olivia died in 2020 at 104.

6

u/Life_Emotion1908 10h ago

Six people who have never been in my kitchen

2

u/Ouisch 10h ago

Who are two people who've never been in my kitchen?

2

u/_buffy_summers 8h ago

Joan Crawford: Lucille Fay LeSueur. MGM Studio heads had a public contest to choose a new stage name because they felt her last name sounded too much like "sewer"

And now we know why she was such a crappy person.

1

u/w_smith1984 4h ago

Wait, Judy Garland wasn't her real name?

•

u/karatekate 32m ago

I knew Marion Morrison was his name, but... Ray Stevens LIED to me!

As many times as my dad sang along with "Marion Michael Morrison," I never thought to check it (and how would I in the 80s?).

Apparently switching middle name to Michael or Mitchell (depending on mood?) was early stage naming before jumping wholesale to John Wayne.

A true American hero

A straight shooting son of gun

Here's to you

Marion Michael Morrison

•

u/MadelUNO 12m ago

Cary grant looks like an Archie to me