Originally appeared on E! Online
Don’t worry if you’ve pronounced Olivia Wilde’s name wrong, darling.
Most people don’t know that the 42-year-old’s real name, Olivia Cockburn, is actually pronounced like “Coburn.”
“It’s a Scottish name,” the Don’t Worry Darling director said to Dax Shepard on the June 29 episode of Armchair Expert. “And it’s very much like ‘A Boy Named Sue.’ You know what I mean? Like it’s character building.”
As one may expect, it wasn’t easy growing up with a suggestive last name—even if her parents are accomplished journalists Andrew Cockburn and Leslie Cockburn. Although she admitted she was sometimes bullied because of her name, Wilde found a silver lining in the teasing.
“It was an early important lesson in like laughing along, not in a way that was like giving into the bullies,” she added. “In a way that, I don’t know, just like I thought it was funny too.”
But regardless of their names, Wilde holds her family in high regard, noting how much she looks up to all of her relatives.
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“I was so proud to be a part of my family because I come from multiple generations of journalists,” the House alum continued. “And so I grew up with both my grandmother, my grandfather, my uncles, my dad, my cousins, everybody was a journalist on my dad’s side. And my mom has this really interesting family.”
And clearly, Wilde has carried on the tradition of creating impactful work, as she has gone on to be a successful actor and director. However, it hasn’t always been a smooth journey for the mother of two, who shares kids Otis, 12, and Daisy, 9, with ex Jason Sudeikis.
In fact, Wilde has finally been opening up about the drama surrounding her film Don’t Worry Darling, including the rumor that she and costar Florence Pugh got into a screaming match on set.
“I have never had a screaming match on my set,” she told The Cut in an interview published June 24. “I was never not available on set. I wanted to be like, ‘None of this is true.’”
But all of these experiences—from public scrutiny to getting bullied for her real name—have made her stronger.
“If you can push through the moment you have previously identified as the worst possible thing that could happen to you, whether that is divorce or the internet hating you or whatever,” she told the outlet, “you are forged into something way better than you could have possibly imagined.”
Keep reading to see more celebs who have changed their names…
Austin Richard Post
Congratulations to Post Malone, who incorporated his surname into his stage name. However, the rapper does prefer his close friends to call him by his real name.
During the 2024 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift referred to him as “Austin” when they won the Best Collaboration award for their duet “Fortnight.”
Aubrey Frances Anderson-Emmons
Though she portrayed Lilly on Modern Family under the name Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, the actress changed her moniker to Frances Anderson to mark her era as a musician.
“Frances is actually part of my legal name—it’s my middle name, and it’s after my mom’s old family friend,” she explained in a 2025 E! News interview. “I thought, one, it was a bit shorter than ‘Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.’ I do have a long, hyphenated last name.”
Hannah Fanning & Mary Fanning
The siblings grew up going up by their middle names, which they chose to use when they entered Hollywood: Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning.
As Elle explained, because their mother went by her middle name, it made sense for the sisters to do the same.
“It was awkward in school when they were calling roll call,” she recalled to Glamour in 2016, “because they’d go, ‘Mary? Mary?’ Kids would be like, ‘There’s no Mary here.’ I’d awkwardly raise my hand, like, ‘Uh, it’s me.’”
William Carl Radke
The Summer House star shocked Bravo fans by revealing his legally given first name isn’t actually Carl.
“My I.D. and my passport—my first name is William,” Carl—who has appeared on the reality show for all nine seasons—told PopViewers in August 2025. “So, my middle name is Carl, but I’ve always, since day one, been called Carl.”
Sterling Kelby Brown
Sterling K. Brown went by his middle name Kelby until he was a teenager.
“My dad’s name is Sterling Brown Jr., my grandfather is Sterling Brown Sr.,” he said during an April 2025 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I wanted my own name and it felt like Sterling was an old man’s name.”
But years after his dad died from a heart attack, the This Is Us alum decided to revert back to his first name as a way to honor his father.
“Because he passed away when I was 10, by the time I turned 16 and I hadn’t heard his name for five, five-and-a-half years,” he continued. “I was like, ‘I kinda just want to hear that name again.’ So I asked people to call me Sterling.”
Nicholas Dylan Efron
The Traitors winner shared on E!’s Hot Goss that his real name is Nicholas Dylan Harrison Efron, but he’s “axed off” his first name and prefers Dylan. As he explained, “That’s my first name and everything gets bumped up,” making Harrison his middle name now.
Andrew Mignogna, Matthew Mignogna & Joey Mignogna
Andrew Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence and Joey Lawrence adopted a new last name in their careers. Joey—whose middle name is Lawrence—was the first to do so after a talent agent criticized the family surname.
Katherine Victoria Litwack
Kat Dennings adopted a stage name at age 9, years before she made her official onstage acting debut on a 2000 episode of Sex and the City.
The 2 Broke Girls alum told Kylie Kelce on the March 13, 2025 episode of her podcast Not Gonna Lie With Kylie Kelce that she didn’t think her real name name should “be displayed on a poster.”
The actress drew inspiration for her stage name from Christina Ricci‘s character Kat in the film Casper as well as the surname of Janine Denni, the French wife of late The Black Cauldron author Lloyd Alexander, a writer she said was her mother’s best friend.
Cheryl Sarkisian
For more than three decades, Cher was made to believe that her legal first name was Cherilyn. It wasn’t until the late ’70s, when she obtained her birth certificate in order to change her full name to just Cher, that she discovered that she had been registered as “Cheryl.”
In her 2024 memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the pop icon recalled her mom Georgia Holt‘s reaction to this discovery.
She said her mother, who gave birth to her at age 19, responded, “Let me look at that!” and then, recalling her postpartum experience, added, “I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break.”
Collins Obinna Chibueze
The outlaw country star adopted Shaboozey as his nickname and later used it as his official alias as a music artist after his Virginia high school misspelled his surname that way.
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson
Though the singer initially released a Christian album under her birth name in 2001, she felt the stage name Katy Perry—inspired by her mom’s maiden name—might leave pop fans more in awe, awe, awe.
Belcalis Almanzar
Cardi B took on the name Bacardi after family and friends started calling her sister Hennessy. Later on she shortened the name to something that suited her quite a bit more.
Rachel Meghan Markle
Before she became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was briefly known as Rachel.
Eilleen Regina Edwards
Shania Twain shared the origin story of her stage name during an appearance on Apple Music’s Home Now Radio: “In short, I was born, Eilleen Regina Edwards, and then I was adopted and I became Eilleen Regina Twain. Then I became a professional singer and I needed a stage name that sounded a little less like my grandmother’s name, because I’m named after my grandmother, both my grandmothers, Eilleen and Regina. I think, in my mind, I was just not really wanting to be called my grandmother’s name onstage, so I decided to change it to Shania Twain. I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born.”
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz
The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s onstage persona—Chappell Roan—has always been a “drag project,” allowing her to set boundaries and separate her personal life from the industry.
Jelena Noura Hadid
Oddly enough, Gigi Hadid got her stage name in school when the teacher would confuse her and a girl named Helena. Since her mom called her “gigi” as a term of endearment at home, she told the teacher to just call her Gigi and it simply stuck.
Mark Vincent
If you’re looking for an explosive action-star name, how about Vin Diesel instead?
Destiny Hope Cyrus
Miley Cyrus‘ bright smile is what inspired her childhood nickname, Smiley. Eventually the name was shortened to Miley and it stuck.
Peter Gene Hernandez
Apparently the singer looked more like a Bruno than a Peter, so one day his dad started calling him Bruno. Ever since, he has been known as Bruno Mars.
Stefani Germanotta
Before the meat dresses and chart-topping music, Lady Gaga was just an everyday girl from New York.
Daniel Sudeikis
Jason Sudeikis confirmed on Today that he was named Daniel after his father, but following some confusion, his mom started using his middle name Jason to avoid confusion.
Emily Stone
Emma Stone ended adopting this stage name after finding out that the Screen Actors Guild already had a member registered under her birthname.
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon
Turns out Reese isn’t even Reese Witherspoon‘s middle name. The actress chose the moniker in honor of her mother, whose maiden name is Reese.
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant
Every artist has an alter ego, and Lana Del Rey just happens to be the persona of choice for the singer.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
