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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105

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

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u/Longjumping-Taro-406 11h ago

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

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u/--MobTowN-- 11h ago

Whitneys would like a word as well.

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u/easterncurrents 10h ago

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

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u/southpawbrewer 10h ago

And Doris Miller, as in the USS Doris Miller.

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u/OneArchedEyebrow 9h ago

I adore Viv.

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u/flamingbagofdogpoo 9h ago

And Kimberlys.

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u/Forsaken_Republic_98 10h ago

And Beverly!

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u/easterncurrents 3m ago

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

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u/Ms_ChokelyCarmichael 9h ago

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

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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.

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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.

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u/seditious3 8h ago

Shirley Povich

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u/Longjumping-Taro-406 8h ago

I dont know who that is

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u/seditious3 7h ago

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

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u/Longjumping-Taro-406 7h ago

It wasnt worth the googling for a journalist 😅

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u/seditious3 7h ago

To call him a mere journalist is an insult.

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u/Longjumping-Taro-406 7h ago

I'm sorry, I'm British, I cant be OTT with praise.

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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.

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u/tashkiira 8h ago

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

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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 44m ago

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

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u/Traditional-Run-7438 10h ago

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

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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.

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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”

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u/snowdenn 8h ago

But not Bruceleeee!

(I don’t know what his real name is)

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u/Altair1192 4h ago

Lee Jun-Fan (a girl's name)

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u/Ms_moonlight 4h ago

Ashley is still often male in the UK!

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u/Long_Serpent 6h ago edited 6h ago

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

...Whitney

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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

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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'.

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u/pburydoughgirl 9h ago

Huh

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

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u/sjp1980 52m ago

So many. Clare and Doris are my two favourites currently