Did You Know Elle Fanning and Dakota Fanning Aren’t Their Real Names?

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Will the real Dakota Fanningand Elle Fanning please stand up? 

Everyone in Hollywood knows Dakota and Elle Fanning, but those aren’t actually their first names! So, who are the actresses from movies like All Her Fault and The Neon Demon really?

They were born Hannah Dakota Fanning and Mary Elle Fanning. 

As Elle shared before, the sisters always went by nicknames, even when they were children and before they were well-known.

I always found it interesting that my mom and sister both go by their middle names instead of their first names. My mom’s first name is actually Hannah, and she told Glamour back in 2016 that she thinks it might be a Southern tradition. Because she goes by her middle name, we all kind of followed suit and do the same!

However, Elle’s decision not to go by Mary did cause some confusion while she was growing up. 

I always dreaded roll call at school. They’d call out ‘Mary?’ with this questioning tone, and everyone would chime in, saying there wasn’t a Mary. It was so embarrassing, but I’d have to sheepishly raise my hand and say, ‘Um, that’s me.’

Dakota shared that her father actually chose her middle name.

In a 2004 interview with People magazine, Dakota Fanning explained that her full name is Hannah Dakota Fanning, but she’s always gone by Dakota.

Despite their names, actresses Dakota and Elle have both found success in Hollywood and are now appearing together in their first film, The Nightingale. The movie is based on the 2015 novel of the same name by author Kristin Hannah.

Before agreeing to star in the movie, the sisters promised each other they’d keep their playful teasing of each other to a minimum while filming.

Elle told TopMob News at the 2026 Golden Globes on January 11th that Dakota promised not to give her orders. Elle explained she wants to be treated as an equal partner, like another actor.

Dakota had Elle make a promise of her own, asking her younger sister not to “annoy me too much.”

I’m so excited for The Nightingale! It’s going to be incredible to see these two actresses play sisters for the very first time. The story follows their journey as siblings trying to survive in France while it’s occupied by the Nazis during World War II. Mark your calendars, because it’s coming to theaters on February 12th, 2027 – I’ve already got a reminder set!

Okay, I’m seriously losing it right now! Elle just told TopMob that after years of hoping, they’re finally making the movie! She and her sister are producing it too, which is just… everything! It’s really happening this time, you guys, REALLY happening!

That’s great news for Hannah and Mary! If you’re curious about other celebrities with unusual names, keep scrolling to learn more.

Oh my gosh, Post Malone is just amazing! Did you know he actually made his stage name include his real last name? It’s so cool! But get this – he actually prefers his closest friends to call him by his given name, not ‘Post Malone’! It’s like, he’s a superstar, but still super down-to-earth, you know?

At the 2024 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift called her co-artist ‘Austin’ after they won the award for Best Collaboration for their song ‘Fortnight’.

Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, known as Lilly on Modern Family, now goes by Frances Anderson. She made the name change to reflect her new focus on a music career.

In a 2025 interview with TopMob News, Aubrey explained that ‘Frances’ is actually her middle name, given in honor of a close friend of her mother. She also mentioned she preferred it because it was shorter than her full, hyphenated last name, Anderson-Emmons.

I’ve always known them as Dakota and Elle Fanning, but it’s interesting to remember they actually started using their middle names when they first began pursuing acting in Hollywood. It just felt more… them, I guess, and it stuck!

Elle explained that since their mother used her middle name, the sisters decided to follow suit.

She remembered feeling embarrassed during roll call at school. She told Glamour in 2016 that when they called ‘Mary?’, classmates would say there was no one by that name. She’d then have to awkwardly raise her hand and say, ‘It’s me.’

The Summer House star shocked Bravo fans by revealing his legally given first name isn’t actually Carl.

“My driver’s license and passport both say William,” explained Carl, a nine-season veteran of the reality show, in an August 2025 interview with PopViewers. “But my middle name is actually Carl, and I’ve always gone by Carl since the beginning.”

Sterling K. Brown went by his middle name Kelby until he was a teenager.

During an April 2025 interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, he explained that his father is Sterling Brown Jr. and his grandfather is Sterling Brown Sr. He decided he wanted a name of his own because ‘Sterling’ felt like a name for an older man.

Years after his father passed away from a heart attack, the actor—known for his role in This Is Us—chose to go back to using his original first name as a tribute.

It’s just… losing him when I was ten was awful. And then, by the time I was sixteen, it had been five, maybe five and a half years since anyone had even said his name. It sounds crazy, but I just really wanted to hear it again, you know? So I started asking people to call me Sterling. It felt like… keeping a part of him alive, I guess.

Oh my gosh, you guys, I just found out the real name of our Traitor winner, Dylan! Apparently, it’s Nicholas Dylan Harrison Efron – can you believe it?! He told TopMob that he basically dropped the ‘Nicholas’ part because everything just gets moved up a spot, so now Harrison is his middle name! Seriously, Nicholas Dylan Harrison Efron… it’s amazing! I’m obsessed with knowing everything about him, and this is huge!

Brothers Andrew, Matthew, and Joey Lawrence all decided to change their last names professionally. Joey, whose middle name is Lawrence, was the first to make the switch, after a talent agent pointed out the family surname wasn’t ideal.

Kat Dennings began using a professional name when she was nine years old, long before she first appeared on television in a 2000 episode of Sex and the City.

Kat Dennings, known for her role on 2 Broke Girls, shared with Kylie Kelce on her podcast Not Gonna Lie With Kylie Kelce that she prefers not to have her full birth name publicly visible, like on a poster.

The actress chose her stage name by combining inspiration from two sources: the character Kat, played by Christina Ricci in the movie Casper, and the last name of Janine Denni, the French wife of Lloyd Alexander, the author of The Black Cauldron. She explained that Alexander was a close friend of her mother’s.

For over thirty years, Cher thought her full legal name was Cherilyn. However, when she requested her birth certificate in the late 1970s to legally change her name to simply Cher, she found out she was originally registered as Cheryl.

In her 2024 memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the singer Cher wrote about how her mother, Georgia Holt, reacted when she found out.

When she told her mother, who had her at 19, about the situation, her mother exclaimed, “Let me see!” She then remembered her own experience after giving birth, saying, “I was just a teenager myself, and it was really painful. Cut me some slack.”

The country artist known as Shaboozey got his nickname – and eventually his stage name – from a simple mistake: a spelling error on his high school records in Virginia. His real last name was misspelled as ‘Shaboozey’, and he embraced it.

The singer first released music under her real name in 2001 with a Christian album. However, she decided to use the stage name Katy Perry—taken from her mother’s family name—believing it would be more appealing to a wider pop audience.

Cardi B got the nickname “Bacardi” because people started calling her sister Hennessy. She later shortened it to the name we know today, which she felt fit her better.

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

Shania Twain revealed the story behind her stage name during a recent interview on Apple Music’s Home Now Radio. Born Eilleen Regina Edwards, she was later adopted and became Eilleen Regina Twain. When she started her singing career, she needed a stage name that didn’t sound too much like her grandmothers’, as she shares the same names – Eilleen and Regina – with them. She didn’t want to perform under a name so closely tied to family, so she chose “Shania Twain.” She had met someone named Shania and loved the sound of it, and that’s how her stage name was born.

Chappell Roan, the singer behind ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, has always approached performing as a ‘drag project.’ This helps her create clear boundaries between her stage presence and her personal life, and keeps the two separate from the demands of the music industry.

Interestingly, Gigi Hadid didn’t choose her stage name – it came about in school! Her teacher kept mixing her up with a classmate named Helena. Since her mom always called her “gigi” as a nickname, she asked the teacher to just refer to her as Gigi, and the name stuck!

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

Miley Cyrus earned the nickname “Smiley” as a child because of her cheerful grin. Over time, the name was shortened to Miley, and that’s what everyone started calling her.

The singer resembled a Bruno more than a Peter, so his father began calling him Bruno, and that name stuck. He’s been known as Bruno Mars ever since.

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

Jason Sudeikis revealed on the Today show that his given first name is Daniel, after his father. However, to avoid confusion with another family member, his mother began calling him by his middle name, Jason.

Emma Stone chose her stage name because someone else was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild under her real name.

Interestingly, Reese Witherspoon’s first name isn’t actually her middle name! She adopted it as a tribute to her mother, whose family name is Reese.

Every artist creates a different public image, and for Lana Del Rey, that image is simply herself – she embodies the persona she performs as.

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

Many fans don’t realize that Tina Fey, the creator of 30 Rock, was actually born Elizabeth. She playfully honored her given name by naming her iconic character on the show, Liz Lemon.

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

It seems the singer known as Lorde developed an interest in nobility, which inspired her stage name. She intentionally added an ‘e’ to ‘Lorde’ to feminize it.

Before becoming a world-famous singer, Ricky Martin was known by a different, more common name.

It’s hard to believe that Iggy Azalea was born Amethyst Kelly!

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2026-01-14 02:48