MANILA, Philippines – Venesa Lacsamana to Alma Moreno. Demetria Gene Guynes to Demi Moore. Phylbert Angellie Ranollo Fagestrom to Bea Alonzo. Peter Gene Bayot Hernandez To Bruno Mars. Beethoven del Valle Bunagan to Michael V.
It isn’t uncommon for people to change their names before they become popular or as they seek the limelight or get caught by fame.
But how about celebrities who decided to change their names midway into their career or when they were already prominent?
Filipino singer Jake Zyrus, formerly known as Charice Pempengco, is the latest among celebrities who had changed their names at the time when they were already well-known.
Here are the others who did the same thing:
1. PRINCE
The American singer-songwriter who died of accidental overdose of opioid fentanyl in April 2016 at the age of 57 changed his name in 1993 to an unpronounceable symbol 
, which looked like a mash-up of the male and female gender symbols.
Prince, born Prince Rogers Nelson, changed his name to rebel against his obligations to his record label Warner Bros. because he thought that it was part of a contractual trap.
“Warner Bros took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing took to promote all of the music I wrote,” Prince said. “The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.”
The singer-songwriter reverted to using the name Prince in 2000 when his contract with Warner Bros ended.
2. CAT STEVENS
The 68-year-old British singer-songwriter, whose hit songs include Moonshadow, Morning Has Broken and Father and Son, changed his name to Yusuf Islam after he almost drowned when he went for a swim in the ocean off Malibu in 1976. Amid the danger, he promised God his complete devotion if He would save him.
A 2015 article written by Andy Greene for the RollingStone said that as Stevens was praying, a wave suddenly pushed him to shore.
Not long after, his brother gave him a copy of the Islamic sacred book Quran. Stevens, born Steven Demetre Georgiou, embraced Islam in 1977 and the following year changed his name to Yusuf Islam, devoting himself to Allah.
According to his biography, “during his Islamic studies,” Stevens “felt a powerful affinity with the story of Joseph and decided to take its Arabic equivalent as his new name, becoming Yusuf Islam in 1978.”
“He then amazed the world by walking away from fame and his career as a music star, to start a family and dedicate himself to charitable work.”
3. IAN KING
The eldest son of the late Victoria Court motel chain owner Archimedes “Archie” Rosario King and husband of model-host Joey Mead changed her name to Angelina Mead King when she announced last year that she’s a transgender woman.
“It’s hard to keep denying yourself your own truth so now this is me,” said King in her July 2016 social media post.
Asked in a recent media interview if Mead was still intimate with King, the model-host said, “We are very, very intimate still. “[I guess] I’m a lesbian now? Or she’s a lesbian.”
King, meanwhile, said, “Actually, I think our connection is even deeper because we went through something very difficult and came out strong together. I’m very sweet to Joey. I always make sure that she’s being taken care of…”
4. WILLIAM “BRUCE” JENNER
The 67-year-old former decathlete, an Olympic gold medalist and the parent of Kendall and Kylie Jenner and step-parent of Kim Kardashian, changed her name to Caitlyn Jenner in July 2015 following her gender transition.
In September 2015, Jenner asked a judge to officially change her gender to female, which was granted the next month.
In April 2017, Jenner disclosed that she had undergone gender reassignment surgery in January of the same year because she was “tired of tucking the damn thing in all the time.'”
5. PATRICIA JAVIER
The Filipino actress, the protagonist in the 1999 drama-romance movie Ang Kabit ni Mrs. Montero, went back to using her legal first name Genesis when she moved to the U.S. and performed for a while with an all-female group called Asian Dolls and worked as a deejay and in non-showbiz jobs, including working at a beauty spa.
When Genesis went back to the Philippines in 2015 with her family and signed a three-year show biz contract, she dropped her legal name and again used her screen name Patricia.
6. SNOOP DOGG
In 2012, the 45-year-old American rapper-actor, born Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr., announced that he had changed his stage name from Snoop Dogg to Snoop Lion and that he was tired of hip-hop and wanted to embrace reggae.
He said that while he was in Jamaica, he visited a temple where he was renamed Snoop Lion and also given the Ethiopian name Berhane, which means “light of the world.”
In 2013, Snoop Lion again renamed himself Snoopzilla amid the release of a new album with groove singer Dam-Funk called 7 Days of Funk .
Snoopzilla was a homage to American musician and funk legend William Earl Bootsy Collins, who adopted the occasional stage name, Bootzilla, which was also the title of the 1978 song recorded by Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
-ARCS/InterAksyon
