Celeb names are Madness!

SECRETS BEHIND SUGGS & STING

Born Maurice Micklewhite, the screen legend was advised to change his name in 1954 by his agent when his acting career took off. He was in a phone box at the time and chose it from a nearby poster for Humphrey Bogart’s The Caine Mutiny.

Elton John

Starting life as Reg Dwight, the London-born singer changed his name in the 1960s by blending blues saxophonist Elton Dean with singer Long John Baldry. He added Hercules as his new middle name after the horse from sitcom Steptoe And Son.

Whoopi Goldberg

Originally named Caryn Elaine Johnson, the US actress says she suffered bouts of wind in her theatre days and people joked that she was like a whoopee cushion!

Lady Gaga

The 34-year-old American is really called Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, but got her name because she reminded a music producer of Freddie Mercury when he sang Queen’s Radio Gaga.

Tom Jones

A promoter encouraged the Delilah singer to drop his real surname, Woodward, in 1963 in favour of Tom Jones to capitalise on the success of the film of the same name.

The Police frontman was plain Gordon Sumner until he started making a buzz wearing a black and yellow jumper with a jazz band. People thought it made him look like a wasp.

Lana Del Rey

Singer Elizabeth Woolridge Grant was inspired by actress Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey car to come up with a new stage name that reminded her of the “glamour of the seaside”.

Bono

U2’s lead singer was originally Paul David Hewson, but growing up in Dublin his pals dubbed him Bono Vox after a Latin phrase for “good voice”. He later adopted it full-time.

Miley Cyrus

The Wrecking Ball star was named Destiny Hope by her parents. They soon nicknamed their grinning kid Smiley, which eventually got shortened to Miley. She legally took it on in 2008.

Jimmy Nail

Before his TV career in shows such as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, James Michael Aloysius Bradford worked in a glass factory. The Geordie picked up the nickname “Nail” after standing on a six-inch spike.

The Firework singer was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in 1984 but switched to using her mother’s maiden name around 2003 to avoid confusion with the Hollywood actress Kate Hudson.

Joaquin Phoenix

The star of films such as Joker went by Joaquín Bottom until he was three, when his parents left a religious cult and changed the family’s surname for that of the mythical bird that rises from the ashes.

THIS week Madness frontman Suggs turns

60 – but would he have found fame with his real name? The Baggy Trousers singer was born Graham McPherson on January 13, 1961.

He chose his nickname while still at school after putting a pin in an encyclopaedia of jazz musicians and hitting Peter Suggs.

But he isn’t the only star who once went by a different moniker, as JAMES MOORE reveals…