Jermaine Jackson wants to change his last name to “Jacksun,” and he’s got his reasons—“artistic reasons.” From The Artist Formerly Known as Prince to Chad Ochocinco and Sean “Puffy, Diddy, Swag” Combs, see more wacky new monikers.
Can I buy a vowel? Michael Jackson’s older brother, Jermaine, would like to swap out the “o” in his famous last name for a “u,” citing “artistic reasons.” A friend of Jermaine’s, Steve Dennis, helped shed light on the singer’s choice by saying, “It is something he has chosen to do, and it’s fair to say that you cannot blame this one on the boogie, you’ve got to blame it on the sunshine,” referencing the Jacksons’ 1978 disco hit.
Charles Sykes / AP Photo
Snoop Dogg’s rebranding as Snoop Lion came as part of his rebirth as a reggae artist—and, according to Snoop, it’s because the rap game was no longer a challenge. “With no disrespect to other rappers, but they can’t fuck with me in rap. I’ve won every accolade in rap, they call me ‘Uncle Snoop’ in rap. When you’re an uncle, it’s time to find something new…I want to feel like a kid again.” If you’re wondering how reggae translates into “lion” specifically, Snoop addresses that, too: “I want to bury Snoop Dogg and become Snoop Lion. I didn’t know that until I went to the temple, where the High Priest asked me what my name was, and I said, ‘Snoop Dogg.’ And he looked me in my eyes and said, ‘No more. You are the light; you are the lion.’ From that moment on, it’s like I had started to understand why I was there.”
The eccentric Los Angeles Lakers forward has filed papers to the Los Angeles County Supreme Court to officially change his name to “Metta World Peace." “Metta” is a Buddhist term for the virtue of kindness, and Artest, who received the 2011 NBA citizenship award, may be trying to channel, in his own way, a more wholesome image. Still, this is also the basketball star who once admitted to downing halftime whiskey shots and thanked his psychiatrist after an NBA finals win.
Sipa / AP Photo
Fortunately, spontaneous name-changes aren’t as permanent as tattoos. Cincinnati Bengals wideout Chad Johnson changed his name to Ochocinco at the beginning of the 2008 season, before deciding to take back Johnson this January. He had changed his surname so that he could wear his nickname on his jersey, but like “Jr.” or “Peanut,” it just got old. “I don’t have a choice right now,” he told ESPN. “I’ve done enough with the Ocho thing.”
NFL / AP Photo
Prince’s 1993 flip was actually a strategic jump through a legal loophole: The artist changed his name to breach a contract with Warner Brothers that was valid only for “Prince.” The unpronounceable “symbol of love” was the artist’s new alias of choice, forcing the public to refer to him as “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” “I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name,” Prince explained. “The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was the Love Symbol, a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about.” Once the contract expired, Prince was free to go back to his birth name.
AP Photo
In 1976, Stevens nearly drowned off the coast of Malibu, and as he struggled in the water, he has said he shouted, “Oh God! If you save me I will work for you!” During his recovery, his brother gave him a copy of the Koran, and thus began his Islamic conversion. After officially adopting the religion in 1977, the artist changed his name to Yusuf Islam, the Muslim name for Joseph. “I had found the spiritual home I’d been seeking for most of my life. And if you listen to my music and lyrics, like ‘Peace Train’ and ‘On the Road to Find Out,’ it clearly shows my yearning for direction and the spiritual path I was traveling,” Stevens told Rolling Stone in 2009.
Achmad Ibrahim / AP Photo
Though his recent name change to “Swag” on Twitter only lasted a week, Sean Combs has had quite an evolutionary series of stage names. After making a name for himself as the rap recording artist Puff Daddy, Combs changed his name to P. Diddy following his acquittal on gun possession and bribery charges in 2001. In 2005 he dropped the P, announcing on the Today show that the offending letter was “getting between me and my fans.”
Brad Barket, PictureGroup / AP Photo
He may have won a WWF championship and defeated Hulk Hogan during WrestleMania VI, but all that just wasn’t macho enough for James Brian Hellwig, so he changed his name to Warrior in 1993. The fierce name and its matching character even brought Hellwig a series of lawsuits after the WWF claimed it owned both the “Warrior” and “Ultimate Warrior” names under contract. The court eventually ruled that Hellwig had a right to his own nickname, and his children now use “Warrior” as their legal surname.
The basketball veteran and former “Prince of Midair” got the nickname “World” from his high school days in Brooklyn, for his 360-degree dunks and 44-inch jumps, which earned him a 13-year career in the NBA. He made “World” his legal name in 1981, while playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Rick Stewart / Getty Images
Celebrity tough guy Mr. T wasn’t always known by a single letter. Born Laurence Tureaud, it wasn’t until he became a bouncer that his “Mr. T” persona began to come to life. His wearing of excessive bling began after he started collecting the gold neck chains patrons would leave behind after a fight. Mr. T eventually grew so famous for his strong-man image that he began to enter strength and boxing competitions, well aware of his own fire. “I just feel sorry for the guy who I have to box. I just feel real sorry for him,” he told the Today show before a match.
NBCU Photo Bank / AP Photo
Her single name is as famous around the world as Elvis and Cher, but in 2004 Madonna announced she was ready to abandon her famous moniker, along with her former racy persona. “I was named [Madonna] after my mother,” she explained in an interview with ABC News. “My mother died when she was very young, of cancer, and I wanted to attach myself to another name. This is in no way a negation of who my mother is. I wanted to attach myself to the energy of a different name.” The one she chose was “Esther,” inspired by her Kabbalist religion and the Persian for “Satarah,” meaning “star.” Still, her latest two albums, Confessions on a Dance Floor and Hard Candy, were released under Madonna.
Peter Kramer / AP Photo
Citing her New Age beliefs as motivation, Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet opted for the lyrical name of Lilakoi Moon in 1995. Although her first child, with ex-husband Lenny Kravitz, is known simply as “Zoe,” Bonet’s “new beliefs” led her and second husband Jason Momoa to name their second child Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa. Poor kid.
Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images
When the English former boxer decided to run for public office in his local parliamentary elections, he thought he’d give voters an interesting choice by changing his first name to “None of the Above” and his surname to “X.” The former World Light Welterweight champion did not expect to win the election but wanted to make a statement about the issues in the electoral process. “I’m doing what I think the Electoral Commission should be doing and what should be on every ballot paper in any electoral process,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
Bob Martin / Getty Images
