Emma Stone would prefer to be called "Emily" — because that's her real name. In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the actress, 35, shared that she goes by "Emma Stone" because "Emily Stone" was already taken by another SAG-AFTRA actress. In the joint interview with her costar Nathan Fielder, Nathan said, "Her name’s Emily, but she goes by Emma professionally. So when there’s people that don’t know her, I end up saying Emma. But I’m going to just say Emily from here on."
She then explained that that "when I get to know them, people that I work with [call me Emily]."
She also added that she "freaked out a couple of years ago."
"For some reason, I was like, 'I can't do it anymore. Just call me Emily.'"
When asked how she would react if a fan called her "Emily" instead of "Emma," she said, "That would be so nice. I would like to be Emily."
Emma is not the only celebrity that uses a different name professionally — and not even the only one who uses a different name because her real name was already "taken."
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Here are several other celebrities who go by names other than the names they were given at birth:
1. Julianne Moore
Actress Julianne Moore's real name is Julie Anne Smith. She goes by a different name professionally for the same reason Emma Stone does: because there was already someone with her name in SAG-AFTRA.
“When I went to join SAG as Julie Smith, they were like, ‘There’s a Julie Smith, there’s a Julie Anne Smith. You have to choose another name,’” she previously told The Hollywood Reporter.
2. Vin Diesel
As Conan O'Brien previously said when speaking to Vin Diesel, "many people create a name when they get into show business." They might have different reasons for doing so. In Vin Diesel's case, the name he uses professionally sounds cool.
"There's no way to say Vin Diesel in an uncool way," Conan said during the 2006 interview. Though the action star's name suits him well, he actually chose it for another reason. On Late Night with Conan O’Brien, he revealed that he started going by Vin Diesel when he worked as a bouncer (for safety reasons). The name "stuck" and he now goes by Vin Diesel professionally, but he was born Mark Sinclair.
3. Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder didn't put a ton of thought into her name change. The Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands star uses her real first name. Winona was the name her parents gave her because she was born in Winona, Minnesota, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
Ryder, however, is a stage name that she decided to use professionally. She was born Winona Laura Horowitz, though she told The Hollywood Reporter that "Horowitz was something [her] dad's family picked up when they immigrated to Ellis Island because they were traveling with this other family." Before that, their last name was Tomchin.
She previously told Harper's & Queen that she chose the name "Ryder" because jazz musician Mitch Ryder's music was playing when her agent called her and asked about the name she wanted listed in the credits of a film.
4. Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg's real name is Caryn Elaine Johnson. She chose to go by a different name professionally because she wanted to keep her personal life and her professional life separate. When choosing a name, she was truly inspired by a whoopee cushion.
"The true story is that my family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Catholic — none of which I subscribe to, by the way, as I don't believe in man-made religions," she previously said, as per Playbill. "So I took the last name from a Jewish ancestor. And I happen to be gaseous, which explains the first name, short for whoopee cushion."
She previously told The Washington Post that the name "came out of the blue" and started out as a joke. “My mother said, ‘Nobody’s gonna respect you with a name like that.’ So I put Goldberg on it," she told the outlet.
5. Brad Pitt
The name Brad Pitt is not drastically different from the actor's real name, which is William Bradley Pitt. It's fairly common for actors to choose to go by a middle name professionally — Ashton Kutcher (Christopher Ashton Kutcher), for example, also does this.
But it's possible that Brad Pitt does not always go by Brad, according to a report from Page Six. In 2018, the outlet reported that Pitt was spotted flirting with a woman, and he introduced himself as "William."
6. Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe is an iconic name — but not the late actress' real name. Time reported that the studio Marilyn Monroe signed a contract with in 1946, 20th Century Fox, worked with her to think of a stage name.
At the time, her name was Norma Jeane Dougherty. A studio executive thought the pronunciation of "Dougherty" would be too complicated, according to the outlet. She picked "Monroe” because it was her mom's maiden name. The studio executive suggested "Marilyn," drawing inspiration from Marilyn Miller.
7. Alicia Keys
If Alicia Keys sounds like the perfect name for a musician, it's because it's actually a stage name. The singer and songwriter was born Alicia Augello Cook. When she started trying to think of a stage name, she consulted a dictionary, searching for a word that might work as a last name.
She liked "Wild" and asked her mom what she thought of the name "Alicia Wild." "[My mom] said, 'It sounds like you're a stripper,'" Alicia previously told Newsweek. Speaking to Gayle King on CBS This Morning, she revealed that "Keys" eventually came to her in a dream.
After hearing "Alicia Keys" in her dream, it stuck with her. "I liked Keys. It's like the piano keys. And it can open so many doors," she told Newsweek.
