Uncover the fascinating stories behind some of music's most iconic stage names! From empowering meanings to childhood nicknames, discover the origins of names like SZA, Chappell Roan, Halsey, Iggy Azalea, Megan Thee Stallion, The Weeknd, Bono, Ringo Starr, Lady Gaga, and Pink. You may never guess the reasons why these artist pick their specific names.
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00:00The full story of getting my stage name, Iggy Azalea, is a two-part saga.
00:06Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most surprising and fascinating origins
00:11behind some of music's most iconic stage names.
00:14I don't know if you could get a better name than Ringo Stumpf.
00:17I know, follow around.
00:19Number 10, SZA.
00:21SZA is known for writing relatively personal songs,
00:24so it makes sense that her stage name holds deeper significance.
00:30Born Solana Imani Rowe, she explained that she connected with the Supreme Alphabet,
00:37a system from the 5% nation that gives each letter its own symbolic meaning.
00:42Like RZA from Wutan clan, she took inspiration from the system but made it her own.
00:47In the Supreme Alphabet, S usually stands for savior, but that didn't really click for her.
00:52SZA just kind of like arrived at me, and then the Supreme Alphabet and everything else that it meant.
00:58I love SZA's life.
01:00So she switched it up and made it either sovereign, reflecting freedom and self-rule, or savior,
01:06which gives the sense of empowerment and owning your choices.
01:09I need me at least by four of them, more of them, more of you, on me, on us.
01:16Number 9, Chapel Rhone.
01:18This femininominon made a splash in the early 2020s,
01:22standing out with everything from her empowering lyrics to her bold drag persona.
01:26H-O-T-T-R-G-O
01:30You can take me hard to go
01:33But her stage name actually comes from a much more personal place.
01:37Rhone, whose real name is Kaylee Rose Amstutz,
01:40explained that her name is a tribute to her late grandfather, Dennis K. Chapel.
01:44Before he passed away in 2016, she told him about her plans to use his name in her stage persona.
01:49As for Rhone, it came from a cowboy song called The Strawberry Rhone,
01:53which just happened to be her grandfather's favorite.
01:55Down in the horse corral, standing alone,
02:00Is an old cavallo a strawberry roan?
02:04She's definitely making him proud.
02:06On the stage in my heels,
02:08It's where I belong,
02:10Down at the pink holy club.
02:14Number 8, Holsey.
02:15Did you know that Holsey is an anagram for Ashley, the singer's real name?
02:19You, look as good as the day I met you
02:23I forget just why I left you
02:25While that definitely played a part in choosing it, there's certainly more to it.
02:29If you're familiar with Brooklyn, you might already be one step ahead.
02:33Your real name is Ashley and you mixed up the letters.
02:35Yep, Holsey comes from Holsey Street Station in Brooklyn.
02:52The singer was involved with someone who lived near there around the time they decided to pursue music.
02:56They felt that while Ashley wasn't a star, Holsey had the potential to be, so it became their alter ego.
03:02Free from the limitations they felt that might have held them back as Ashley.
03:06I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe that we're meant to be.
03:09Number 7, Iggy Azalea.
03:11Amethyst Emilia Kelly already sounds like a great stage name,
03:14but that's actually this rapper's real name.
03:16So where did Iggy come from?
03:25The short answer?
03:26Her dog, Iggy.
03:28The rapper was so in love with her pet that she had a nameplate made in his honor,
03:32which she'd wear often.
03:33People started mistaking Iggy for her real name, so she just went with it.
03:37And I got a nameplate necklace made in his honor,
03:39because I just thought it was cool.
03:41And everybody started to think that my name was Iggy,
03:44so it kind of became my nickname and I took it on board and started rapping with it.
03:48As for Azalea, that was inspired by her grandfather,
03:51who worked in showbiz and encouraged her not to just go with a mononym.
03:55She chose Azalea because it's where her family lives,
03:58and she just liked how it sounded.
04:00I chose Azalea because that is a street that my mom and family live on,
04:05and I loved Azalea because it sounds very feminine,
04:08and I thought it would balance out Iggy being so masculine.
04:11Number 6, Megan Thee Stallion.
04:13Unlike everyone else on this list, this rapper kept her first name,
04:16but replaced the rest with Thee Stallion.
04:18He goes, dang, you know, you're fine, you're a stallion.
04:21I'm like, what? What is that?
04:23Like, you know, I didn't know what it was.
04:25She explained that as a tall teenager and early developer,
04:28older men would often call her a stallion.
04:31Curious to find the meaning in such a label, she decided to own it.
04:34She first used the name on her socials before recording under it.
04:37So I had to go and I had to ask around, like, I had to ask my uncle, like,
04:39what's a stallion? He was like, oh, yeah, I'm making that mean you're, like, tall and fine.
04:43I was like, oh, yeah, that is me.
04:46I changed my name on, like, everything to Thee Stallion.
04:50So I've been Thee Stallion since, like, high school.
04:53You've probably also heard her referred to as the H-Town Hottie,
04:57a nickname that she chose for herself.
04:58Anyway, we love how she took this title from her youth
05:01and turned it into something empowering.
05:03Go get it, girl.
05:04Own your body-oddy-oddy-oddy-oddy-oddy-oddy-oddy.
05:10Number 5. The Weeknd.
05:11Who doesn't love The Weeknd?
05:13There's a reason Daniel Craig became a meme, right?
05:16Ladies and gentlemen, The Weeknd.
05:19Okay, none of that has anything to do with this origin story.
05:21Abel Tesfaye, his real name and how he's now chosen to be known,
05:25said The Weeknd actually reflects the start of his career.
05:28In a Reddit AMA, he shared that at 17, he dropped out of high school
05:39and one weekend, he and his friend, Lamar, grabbed their mattresses,
05:43packed it into a van and never looked back.
05:45Somewhere along the way, he must have dropped the final E.
05:48Kidding, of course.
05:49He just wanted to avoid legal issues with the Canadian group The Weeknd.
05:53Number 4. Bono.
06:02The Irish singer-songwriter Paul David Hewson didn't come up with Bono himself.
06:07It was actually a friend who suggested it.
06:09Born Paul David Hewson, he was dubbed Bono by his childhood best friend.
06:13The name comes from the Latin bono vox, meaning good voice.
06:17Pretty standard, huh?
06:19But that's not the whole story.
06:20Apparently, as a teenager in Ireland, he was part of a surrealist street gang called Lipton Village.
06:25Where the streets have no name.
06:29Where the streets have no name.
06:32Near where they hung out was a hearing aid store called Bonovox,
06:36which ended up inspiring his name.
06:38Before settling on Bono, he reportedly tried out Hoistman,
06:42Hausman, Bon Murray, Bonovox of O'Connell Street,
06:45and one so long, we won't even try to pronounce it.
06:48Safe to say, he made the right call.
06:50But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
06:57Number three, Ringo Starr.
07:00Before the Beatles were even a thing, Richard Starkey had already rebranded.
07:04He left his factory job to join the skiffle band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes,
07:09and that's when Ringo Starr was born.
07:10He felt that the name just fit the group's style, and also played into his love of American cowboy culture.
07:27As for Ringo, well, that came from the classic thing of where people latch onto something distinctive about you,
07:32like, say in this case, wearing a lot of rings.
07:35I wore quite a few rings, which I don't wear now, and it's, in Liverpool, it's like, you get known,
07:44so people would start calling, hey rings, what's going on?
07:47Starr later joked about how funny it was hearing his flashy stage name alongside the more everyday sounding,
07:52John, Paul and George.
07:53It's always sounded funny, though. John, Paul, George, Ringo.
07:58Number two, Lady Gaga.
08:00Born Stephanie Germanotta, Lady Gaga started as a nickname when she was beginning her music career,
08:05representing everything she wanted to be as an artist.
08:08The story goes further. Her name was inspired by Queen's Radio Gaga.
08:12Have you, I mentioned earlier on your name, Lady Gaga, and I have already asked you, this is based on the Queen song?
08:17Yeah.
08:17Apparently, something about her just screams Radio Gaga.
08:20Though she's never confirmed this part, her producer at the time said that it came from an autocorrect mishap
08:25when he tried to text the Queen's song title.
08:36Gaga has shared that almost everyone calls her Gaga, but never Lady, because that would be weird.
08:42We guess we can't be too ducking mad at autocorrect, because from that moment, a star was born.
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09:09Number one, Pink.
09:12Pink has shared a few different stories about her name, and some are definitely more NSFW than others.
09:18One version is that it came from a childhood nickname inspired by the outspoken Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs.
09:23Because of Reservoir Dogs, Reservoir Dogs came out and Mr. Pink was in there and he was the outspoken one.
09:28So I got dubbed.
09:29As for the more colourful version, well, apparently Pink, real name Alicia Moore, had a friend who was curious about how a certain anatomical feature looked on a white woman.
09:39And let's just say she enlightened him, and the name stuck.
09:42I'm having more fun, and now that we're done, I'm gonna show you tonight.
09:50Not everyone on her team was a fan of that version though, so it's a good thing that they had the Reservoir Dogs narrative to fall back on.
09:56When I get embarrassed, I turn pink, and somebody embarrasses me really bad, I turn pink.
10:02It's something I never lived down, actually, and now it's just, I really never live it down.
10:06Have you heard any other cool back stories of musicians' stage names?
10:09Let us know in the comments.
10:11Your mom calls you Gaga?
10:12Yes.
10:13Your friends will call you Gaga?
10:14Yes.
10:15Do they call you Lady Gaga or just Gaga?
10:16Just Gaga.
10:17I think it's weird when they call me Lady.
10:18Oh, of course.
10:19Do you agree with our picks?
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