▲Originally Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Lady Gaga received her stage name from music producer Rob Fusari.

▲When he was helping her with an album, he compared her sound to Queen's 1984 song 'Radio Ga-Ga,' giving birth to Lady Gaga.

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In 2023, Canadian pop star The Weeknd has gone back to his birth name Abel Tesfaye on his social media accounts, marking both an end and a beginning.

The Weeknd told W Magazine, "It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter," adding that he won't stop making music, "But I still want to kill The Weeknd."

His reason was: "As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say." For a little insight as to why he might feel that way, one might look to the origin of his stage name. The artist once shared with fans on Reddit that he dropped out of high school and left home when he was 17, convincing XO crew member Lamar to do the same. "We grabbed our mattresses from our parents threw it in our friends s****y van and left one weekend and never came back home." He added that "The Weekend" was going to be the title of his first mixtape, but confessed, "I hated my name at the time though so I tried it as a stage name. It sounded cool." His return to his given name might then be perceived as Tesfaye no longer running, and instead coming home to his origins and his family name.

▲He dropped the "e" in weekend because there was already a band with that name.

▲Born Eric Marlon Bishop, he changed his first name to Jamie when doing stand-up comedy because women were chosen to go first and "Jamie" seemed to be a gender-ambiguous name.

▲His last name, "Foxx," was in tribute to comedian Redd Foxx.

▲The singer's real name is Katy Hudson.

▲The reason she changed her name is pretty simple: she shared it with actress Kate Hudson.

▲Peter Gene Hernandez was nicknamed Bruno by his dad because as a chunky kid, he resembled pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino.

▲He changed his last name after thinking he'd get mistaken as wanting to make Latin records when his passion was funk and R&B.

▲The American-Canadian actor's first wrestling name was actually Rocky Maivia, which came from a combination of his father and grandfather's wrestling names.

▲Eventually, it was shortened to The Rock. His birth name is Dwayne Douglas Johnson.

▲Born Caryn Johnson, the actress-comedian had a tendency to pass gas when she was younger, and people allegedly said she was like a whoopee cushion.

▲She kept her first name as Whoopi but adopted a more serious last name after her mom told her no one would take her serious if she changed her name to "Whoopi Cushion."

▲This pretty little liar's name is actually Shannon.

▲She is a big fan of J.Lo, so her friends would call her "Shay Lo" after the Latin artist.

▲They called him "Little Hammer." It changed to "MC Hammer" when he picked up the mic and began singing.

▲Destiny Hope Cyrus legally changed her name to Miley Cyrus when she was 15.

▲Because she was always smiling as a kid, people called her "Smiley," which later became Miley.

▲Rapper Calvin Broadus was nicknamed "Snoopy" as a child.

▲His parents thought he looked like the famous cartoon dog.

▲The martial artist's real first name is Kong-sang, but when working at an Australian construction site, a coworker couldn't pronounce his name, calling him "Little Jack" instead.

▲The name ultimately evolved into "Jackie" and stayed that way.

▲De Rossi's real name is Amanda Lee Rogers. She changed her name at age 15.

▲The singer's given name is Stevland Morris.

▲People called him "the little boy wonder" because of his talent when he showed up on the scene at age 10.

▲Born Olivia Jane Cockburn, the actress's mother suggested that she change her name when she first started her acting career.

▲She was a huge fan of writer Oscar Wilde and was inspired after starring in 'The Importance of Being Earnest.'

▲A semi-acronym for "Ladies Love Cool James," the rapper's real name is James Todd Smith.

▲The nickname came about when he was 16 and joking around with a friend about how to attract the ladies.

▲Born Ehrich Weiss, "Harry" was the Americanized version of his first name.

▲His last name was inspired by his idol, French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.

▲Drake is actually Aubrey Graham's middle name!

▲Alessia Cara's actual last name is Caracciolo, of Italian origin. Now it's Cara for short.

▲The Canadian electronic producer got his stage name after finding a dead mouse in his computer!

▲This Canadian poet and musician was born Keinan Abdi Warsame. His stage name means "traveler" in Somalian.

▲MGM publicity held a contest to find her a new name, and she became Joan Crawford.

▲This Canadian musician took his stage name from a FL Studio audio filter setting.

▲This famous Canadian YouTuber, originally Lilly Saini Singh, got her username Superwoman even before she launched her channel.

▲She had a ring with the Superwoman "S" on it and has been the Superwoman everyone knows and loves ever since.

▲Bif actually comes from her first name, Beth. Someone couldn't pronounce Beth and so everyone just began calling her Bif. Naked came later when she was in college and her band needed a punk rock name.

▲Hip-hop superstar Jason D. Harrow used to go by KoolAid. He then changed it to Kardinal Offishall after 17th-century French politician Cardinal Richelieu.

▲This singer was born Valerie Anne Poxleitner, but legally changed her name to Lights at the age of 18. The name actually stems from her last name Poxleitner.

▲R&B singer Massari's stage name means "money" in Lebanese Arabic and comes from his birth name Sari.

▲Pronounced like "chaos," Kevin Brereton's stage name is actually an acronym that originally stood for "Kevin's Original Sound," which he then changed to stand for "Knowledge of Self."

▲This rapper got his stage name by skimming the classified ads, according to Gig City.

▲Shad is actually short for Shadrach Kabango, his birth name.

▲Daniel Denton, member of hip-hop group Swollen Members (second from the right), got his nickname because he drank a lot of coffee!

▲A friend actually nicknamed this rapper, born Daystar Peterson, Lanez because he used to run into the roads to play without checking for oncoming traffic.

▲Vancouver rapper Aaron Hoffman reportedly wanted a moniker that made him sound like he was from New York.

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Denzel Spencer enlisted the help of his high school peers when picking out his stage name. Roy Wood$ ended up being the most popular.

▲Singer Stanley Kirk Burrell got his nickname from a childhood job working as a batboy for an athletic club.

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The young rapper's real name is Montero, which his mother named him because she wanted the Mitsubishi Montero car. Since she couldn't get the car, she named her son Montero instead!

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Lil Nas X's name origin is very on-brand for him, as he revealed on 'The Tonight Show' that it first started from his "internet alias" which was 'Nas,' but he thought it was funny that every new rapper's name started with "Lil," so he did the same, and he added the X later. It's fitting for someone whose fame rocketed on the internet and with so much humor, plus, he told Jimmy Fallon, the story for his real name is even better.

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Producer Louis B. Mayer made the actress change her name from Lucille LeSueur because he thought her last name sounded too much like "Le Sewer."

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What is the backstory behind Snoop Dogg's name? Or how about singer Lady Gaga? We've dug up the most interesting stories behind your favorite celebrities' stage names. Click through this gallery and learn all about how these monikers came to be!