Sometimes you need to change your name to make it as a star in Hollywood or the music business.
Plenty of today's biggest stars don't go by their birth names — Reese Witherspoon, Mila Kunis, and Natalie Portman.
However, you probably aren't familiar with how they ended up with their current monikers.
Some are simple. Francis Ford Coppola's nephew Nicolas Cage changed his last name to avoid the worries of Hollywood nepotism.
Others, like Bruno Mars and Michael Caine are more inspired. And then there's Whoopi Goldberg, whose name was changed after friends noticed her flatulence problem.
Mila Kunis — Milena Markovna Kunis
At the age of seven, Milena Markovna Kunis and her family moved from Ukraine to Los Angeles, Calif.
Mila's mother, Elvira, and father, Mark, soon enrolled her in acting classes and allowed Mila to shorten her name when she started booking her first roles on "Days of our Lives,""7th Heaven," and playing a young Angelina Jolie in "Gia."
Joaquin Phoenix — Joaquin Rafael Bottom/Leaf Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Bottom is the third of five children, all with equally interesting names, including River (1970–1993), Rain (1973), Liberty (1976), Summer, and a half-sister Jodean.
After Joaquin's parents, John Lee and Arlyn Bottom, married in 1969, the couple joined the religious cult the Children of God and traveled around South America. But they soon became disenchanted with the cult and moved back to the U.S. in 1978, where they changed their last name to "Phoenix" to symbolize "new beginning."
Around this same time, a young Joaquin began calling himself "Leaf," desiring to have a similar nature-related name like his siblings. In a past Jay Leno interview, Joaquin said he had originally called himself "Antleaf" as a child.
Leaf would become the name he would use as a child actor until, at age 15, he changed it back to Joaquin.
Reese Witherspoon — Laura Jeanne
The "Sweet Home Alabama" actress traded her first and middle name in for her mother's maiden name, "Reese."
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