| abstract | - This list of stage names lists performers, and others related to the entertainment industry, alphabetically by their stage name's surname, followed by their birth name. Individuals who have dropped their last name and substituted their middle name as their last name are listed. Also listed are individuals who have changed the spelling of one or more of their legal names, such as Willem Dafoe. In many cases, performers have legally changed their name to their stage name. People are not listed here if they fall into one or more of the following categories:
* Their stage forename is not their birth forename, but is a middle name, as with Paul McCartney and Marie Osmond—these are their real middle names, not stage names.
* People referred to by merely a shortened or informal version of their given name, such as Bob Barker and Jimmie Rodgers.
* People who may be popularly, though not necessarily professionally, known by a nickname, such as Robert John "Mutt" Lange.
* People who use names that they legally adopted before they entered the entertainment industry. Examples:
* Julie Andrews was born Julia Elizabeth Wells, but took the name Andrews when she moved in with her stepfather as a child.
* Art Linkletter was born Gordon Arthur Kelly, but his name was changed to Arthur Gordon Linkletter when he was adopted in infancy.
* Tupac Shakur is listed here, but under the stage name 2Pac. He was born either Lesane Parish Crooks or Parish Lesane Crooks, depending on the source, but his name was changed in early childhood to Tupac Amaru Shakur.
* Elton John is listed here because he used the name professionally before he legally adopted it in 1972.
* People who changed their family name solely due to marriage, such as Pamela Des Barres and Jeri Ryan.
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