Nicolas Cage Explains Decision to Legally Change His Name

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Nicolas Cage and Wife Riko Shibata Have Rare Date Night at Spider-Noir Premiere

Nicolas Cage made sure his chosen name would become a national treasure.

The National Treasure star—who was born Nicolas Kim Coppola—revealed why he decided to change his name for his career and ultimately make it permanent.

"I am Nick Cage," he told Variety in a May 27 interview when asked if it's "strange" to have been known by his stage name for so long. "I changed my name legally last year. I'm Nick Cage in life, and I'm Nick Cage on camera."

The Spider-Noir actor—who is a member of one of the biggest families in cinema, the Coppola family—emphasized that he wanted his name and career to stand on its own.

"'Tis better to be the patriarch of my own little family than the clown cousin on the margins of someone else’s," he said, "so I decided I’m going to bring it on and be 'Cage.'"

And as for how he landed on the moniker, Nicolas shared that he drew inspiration from Marvel superhero Luke Cage and America composer John Cage.

"'Cage' is a name that I liked coming across in the comics—I just thought he had a cool name—and I grew up in a very avant-garde, artsy family," he explained, "and there was talk about John Cage and the experimental compositions that he did."

"I was looking for something like 'James Dean,'" he continued. "I was looking for something short and sweet."

For his first name, meanwhile, the Longlegs star—whose dad was August Coppola—decided to keep it unchanged, but noted that he didn't always love the more uncommon spelling.

"I thought, well, I’ll keep the name 'Nicolas' because my father named me Nicolas—with French spelling, which has always frustrated me, because everyone adds an 'h,'" he said. "I don’t know why he gave me the French spelling! But he did."

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As for when he first decided to change his name, the Face/Off actor previously revealed there was one moment in particular that prompted him to take action.

After all, Nicolas was credited as Nicolas Coppola early in his career when he starred in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

But according to the Oscar winner, fans couldn't help but associate him with his famous last name and would even insert him into references to his uncle Francis Ford Coppola's iconic film Apocalypse Now.

"People would not stop saying things like, 'I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning' because of Apocalypse Now, when Robert Duvall said, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning,'" he told WIRED in 2022. "And it made it hard to work and I said, 'I don’t need this.' So, I changed it to Cage."

Yet, Nicolas is only one of many stars who have changed their names. Read on to learn the real names of your favorite celebrities ...

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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."

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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.”

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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.’”

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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."

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Rachel Meghan Markle

Before she became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was briefly known as Rachel.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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Mark Vincent

If you're looking for an explosive action-star name, how about Vin Diesel instead?

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Destiny Hope Cyrus

Miley Cyrus' bright smile is what inspired her childhood nickname, Smiley. Eventually the name was shortened to Miley and it stuck.

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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.

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Stefani Germanotta

Before the meat dresses and chart-topping music, Lady Gaga was just an everyday girl from New York.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Christopher Edwin Breaux

In 2014, Frank Ocean legally changed his name because, why not?

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Elizabeth Stamatina Fey

A little known fact about 30 Rock's Tina Fey is that she is actually named Elizabeth. The comedian made a not so subtle tribute to her birth name by naming her character Liz Lemon.

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Calvin Broadus

This pioneer of West Coast rap would later go on to be known as Snoop Dogg.

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Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor

Turns out the "Royals" singer is really into learning about the aristocracy, hence the reason why she chose the name Lorde, but with a feminine 'e.'

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