Watch:Oprah Winfrey Reveals the Last-Minute Change Behind “You Get a Car” Moment in 2004
Orpah Winfrey?Keke Palmerhopes she doesn’t sound ridiculous, but she doesn’t know who this woman is
That’s because Orpah is better known asOprah Winfrey, who recently revealed the true origins of her name to Palmer.
“It was Orpah from the Bible,” the entertainment mogul explained on the July 21 episode ofBaby, This is Keke Palmer. “Ruth, first chapter, 14th verse. It’s that whole Ruth and Naomi story. And you know, Ruth said, ‘Wherever thy goest, I will go.’ And then Orpah said, ‘I’m going back. I’m sorry. I can’t. Too long. The road’s too long.’”
Shocked, theNopestar asked why the iconic talk show host changed her original name. The reality is that it wasn’t necessarily Winfrey’s choice to do so
“Nobody knew how to spell it,” the 72-year-old explained. “So, it turned out on my birth certificate, it’s Orpah. And then people started calling me Oprah. And so it’s just the difference between the P being before the R or after the R. So once they started with Oprah, that’s it.”
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Oprah Winfrey Reveals the Last-Minute Change Behind “You Get a Car” Moment in 2004
It wasn’t until she was 20 years old that Winfrey realized that everyone had been getting her actual name—which is still listed on her birth certificate—wrong.
But Winfrey isn’t the only one using a different moniker in public, as she pointed out that Palmer’s government name isn’t what people know her as either
“Lauren Keyana,” she told Palmer, “that’s your real name.”
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Amazon
While theI Love Boostersactress may have been surprised by Winfrey’s story, theOprah Winfrey Showalum has long been open about her origin tale. As far back as 1983, the talk show hosthas been explainingthe mix-up.
“My name is Oprah Winfrey, Oprah, spelled O-P-R-A-H, and if you notice, it’s Harpo spelled backwards,” she said in an audition tape at the time. “My folks did not really like Harpo Marx. We did not even have a television set for a number of years. Originally, I was named from the Bible by Aunt Ida, who named me from Ruth, the first chapter at the 14th verse, Orpah, but no one knew how to spell in my home, and that’s why I ended up being Oprah.”
Read on to see some more celebs reveal their surprising real names…
Steve Jennings/FilmMagicAustin Richard PostCongratulations to Post Malone, who incorporated his surname into his stage name. However, the rapper does prefer his close friends to call him by his real name.
During the 2024 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift referred to him as “Austin” when they won the Best Collaboration award for their duet “Fortnight.”Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty ImagesAubrey Frances Anderson-EmmonsThough she portrayed Lilly on Modern Family under the name Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, the actress changed her moniker to Frances Anderson to mark her era as a musician.
“Frances is actually part of my legal name—it’s my middle name, and it’s after my mom’s old family friend,” she explained in a 2025 E! News interview. “I thought, one, it was a bit shorter than ‘Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.’ I do have a long, hyphenated last name.”Kevin Mazur/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W MagazineHannah Fanning & Mary FanningThe siblings grew up going up by their middle names, which they chose to use when they entered Hollywood: Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning.
As Elle explained, because their mother went by her middle name, it made sense for the sisters to do the same.
“It was awkward in school when they were calling roll call,” she recalled to Glamour in 2016, “because they’d go, ‘Mary? Mary?’ Kids would be like, ‘There’s no Mary here.’ I’d awkwardly raise my hand, like, ‘Uh, it’s me.’”Clifton Prescod/BravoWilliam Carl RadkeThe Summer House star shocked Bravo fans by revealing his legally given first name isn’t actually Carl.
“My I.D. and my passport—my first name is William,” Carl—who has appeared on the reality show for all nine seasons—told PopViewers in August 2025. “So, my middle name is Carl, but I’ve always, since day one, been called Carl.”Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup for Disney/ShutterstockSterling Kelby BrownSterling K. Brown went by his middle name Kelby until he was a teenager.
“My dad’s name is Sterling Brown Jr., my grandfather is Sterling Brown Sr.,” he said during an April 2025 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I wanted my own name and it felt like Sterling was an old man’s name.”
But years after his dad died from a heart attack, the This Is Us alum decided to revert back to his first name as a way to honor his father.
“Because he passed away when I was 10, by the time I turned 16 and I hadn’t heard his name for five, five-and-a-half years,” he continued. “I was like, ‘I kinda just want to hear that name again.’ So I asked people to call me Sterling.”Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty ImagesNicholas Dylan EfronThe Traitors winner shared on E!’s Hot Goss that his real name is Nicholas Dylan Harrison Efron, but he’s “axed off” his first name and prefers Dylan. As he explained, “That’s my first name and everything gets bumped up,” making Harrison his middle name now.Gerardo Mora/Getty ImagesAndrew Mignogna, Matthew Mignogna & Joey MignognaAndrew Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence and Joey Lawrence adopted a new last name in their careers. Joey—whose middle name is Lawrence—was the first to do so after a talent agent criticized the family surname.Amy Sussman/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo BankKatherine Victoria LitwackKat Dennings adopted a stage name at age 9, years before she made her official onstage acting debut on a 2000 episode of Sex and the City.
The 2 Broke Girls alum told Kylie Kelce on the March 13, 2025 episode of her podcast Not Gonna Lie With Kylie Kelce that she didn’t think her real name name should “be displayed on a poster.”
The actress drew inspiration for her stage name from Christina Ricci’s character Kat in the film Casper as well as the surname of Janine Denni, the French wife of late The Black Cauldron author Lloyd Alexander, a writer she said was her mother’s best friend.Emma McIntyre/WireImageCheryl SarkisianFor more than three decades, Cher was made to believe that her legal first name was Cherilyn. It wasn’t until the late ’70s, when she obtained her birth certificate in order to change her full name to just Cher, that she discovered that she had been registered as “Cheryl.”
In her 2024 memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the pop icon recalled her mom Georgia Holt’s reaction to this discovery.
She said her mother, who gave birth to her at age 19, responded, “Let me look at that!” and then, recalling her postpartum experience, added, “I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break.”Prince Williams/WireImageCollins Obinna ChibuezeThe outlaw country star adopted Shaboozey as his nickname and later used it as his official alias as a music artist after his Virginia high school misspelled his surname that way.(Disney/Eric McCandless)Katheryn Elizabeth HudsonThough the singer initially released a Christian album under her birth name in 2001, she felt the stage name Katy Perry—inspired by her mom’s maiden name—might leave pop fans more in awe, awe, awe. Mike Coppola/Getty Images for iHeartMediaBelcalis AlmanzarCardi B took on the name Bacardi after family and friends started calling her sister Hennessy. Later on she shortened the name to something that suited her quite a bit more.Tim Rooke/ShutterstockRachel Meghan MarkleBefore she became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was briefly known as Rachel. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for StagecoachEilleen Regina EdwardsShania Twain shared the origin story of her stage name during an appearance on Apple Music’s Home Now Radio: “In short, I was born, Eilleen Regina Edwards, and then I was adopted and I became Eilleen Regina Twain. Then I became a professional singer and I needed a stage name that sounded a little less like my grandmother’s name, because I’m named after my grandmother, both my grandmothers, Eilleen and Regina. I think, in my mind, I was just not really wanting to be called my grandmother’s name onstage, so I decided to change it to Shania Twain. I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born.”Christopher Victorio/ShutterstockKayleigh Rose AmstutzThe “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s onstage persona—Chappell Roan—has always been a “drag project,” allowing her to set boundaries and separate her personal life from the industry.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesJelena Noura HadidOddly enough, Gigi Hadid got her stage name in school when the teacher would confuse her and a girl named Helena. Since her mom called her “gigi” as a term of endearment at home, she told the teacher to just call her Gigi and it simply stuck. Monica Schipper/Getty ImagesMark VincentIf you’re looking for an explosive action-star name, how about Vin Diesel instead?Chelsea Lauren/REX/ShutterstockDestiny Hope CyrusMiley Cyrus’ bright smile is what inspired her childhood nickname, Smiley. Eventually the name was shortened to Miley and it stuck. Kevin Mazur/WireImagePeter Gene HernandezApparently the singer looked more like a Bruno than a Peter, so one day his dad started calling him Bruno. Ever since, he has been known as Bruno Mars.Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for Live NationStefani GermanottaBefore the meat dresses and chart-topping music, Lady Gaga was just an everyday girl from New York.Rich Fury/Getty ImagesDaniel SudeikisJason Sudeikis confirmed on Today that he was named Daniel after his father, but following some confusion, his mom started using his middle name Jason to avoid confusion. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion PicturesEmily StoneEmma Stone ended adopting this stage name after finding out that the Screen Actors Guild already had a member registered under her birthname. Jim Smeal/REX/ShutterstockLaura Jeanne Reese WitherspoonTurns out Reese isn’t even Reese Witherspoon’s middle name. The actress chose the moniker in honor of her mother, whose maiden name is Reese.Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagicElizabeth Woolridge GrantEvery artist has an alter ego, and Lana Del Rey just happens to be the persona of choice for the singer. Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesChristopher Edwin BreauxIn 2014, Frank Ocean legally changed his name because, why not? Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca FestivalElizabeth Stamatina FeyA little known fact about 30 Rock’s Tina Fey is that she is actually named Elizabeth. The comedian made a not so subtle tribute to her birth name by naming her character Liz Lemon.Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesCalvin BroadusThis pioneer of West Coast rap would later go on to be known as Snoop Dogg.Lester Cohen/Getty Images for NARASElla Marija Lani Yelich-O’ConnorTurns out the “Royals” singer is really into learning about the aristocracy, hence the reason why she chose the name Lorde, but with a feminine ‘e.’Laura Cavanaugh/Getty ImagesEnrique MoralesBefore he started shaking his bonbon for the masses, music superstar Ricky Martin went by this everyday name.Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesAmethyst KellyIt’s hard to believe that Iggy Azalea was born Amethyst Kelly!photos
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