The fact that there's a lady out there named Stephanie who insisted the whole world call her Lady Gaga and we're all just like, "okay."

That's kind of how stage names work.

I've insisted people call me "esteemed Academy Award nominated character actress Margot Robbie" for months and only like 2 people here ever did that. Breaks my heart.💔

Whoa whoa whoa, are you Margot Robbie? As in, the esteemed Academy Award nominated character actress Margot Robbie? What an honor.
- Of course I am, would I really lie to you over the Internet?
You're the most prolific person on Lemmy or I just always notice your comments. Because I'm a huge fan of course.
- We should form a Margot Robbie groupie club! I suggest The Margots.
Hey, have you ever met Taylor Swift? I heard she gives great IT security advice over at https://infosec.exchange/@SwiftOnSecurity
- But was she ever an Internet forum moderator?

Prince literally wanted us to call him a symbol with no explanation.

It took me years until I finally learned why he did that. It had something to do with the music industry owning his name. He reclaimed ownership of all his music and art and made a departure from the extortionate music industry.
- Could've picked something easier to pronounce, though.
- https://goldiesparade.co.uk/new-power-generation/#:~:text=Prince felt so constrained by,the contract and with Warner.
The unpronounceable symbol :

Hollow circle above downward arrow crossed with a curlicued horn-shaped symbol and then a short bar

(known to fans as the "Love Symbol")
- I'm in awe of the outstanding quality of the symbols pic
Maybe you know, did he want to be called "the artist"? And then everyone added "formerly known as Prince"?

Artists be like that. Stage names have been a thing for quite some time.

Writers use pen names too. I'm kinda confused why OP even thinks this is notable?
- Maybe they don't. They never even finished the sentence, so maybe they were going to say "...is incredibly mundane and unnoteworthy"
I'm a performer, people have literally worked under the assumption that my stage name is my legal name. It's not really surprising.

Vin Diesels real name is Mark Sinclair and weve all accepted that too. Marilyn Manson's name is Brian Warner and Alice Cooper was born Vincent Furnier. Stage names are pretty common with performers

But Sinclair stations DO sell diesel.
Gene Simmons is really Chaim Witz
I love this thread. It's becoming informative and amusing.

Isn't that just kind of... how names are supposed to work?

I had to double back to your comment because at first I glances at it and thought yeah... Then I thought about it some more and thought .... Yes! That is exactly how they work. Papers plus or minus but that is the way they work. We all agree upon it and bam. You are now named!

The fact there is a dude out there who wants to be called "Buckethead" and wears a bucket of KFC over his head but also has the sickest guitar skills ever is even weirder.

Never heard of Buckethead before so I had to look him up. HOLY FUCK can that dude shred.
- I found out about him in Guitar Hero 2(?) because Soothsayer is on there and was the only song that used all 4 fret buttons even on the easiest settings (which would normally limit the fret buttons needed to just the first 3). I couldn't physically press all 4 buttons at once (the distance between them was such that my pinky didn't quite reach enough to actually press the last button in) which was why I only ever played at Medium or lower.

JK Rowling also writes as Robert Galbraith.

Does that qualify as irony?
- Like Rafael Cruz’s proposal that everyone else must use their given name, TERFs have rules for thee not for me.
- Irony of the subtype heavy.
In case people don't know, JK Rowling's pen name is a reference to Robert Galbraith Heath, a psychiatrist who experimented with gay conversion therapy in the 60s and 70s using surgically implanted electrodes on gay men's brains. He claims to have "cured" one of them. He did lots of other fucked up things too, and of course Rowling denies her pen name has anything to do with him. FWIW, she also claims she's not a bigot, but her words and actions clearly indicate otherwise.
- JK Rowling’s pen name is a reference to Robert Galbraith Heath, a psychiatrist who experimented with gay conversion therapy in the 60s and 70s using surgically implanted electrodes on gay men’s brains.
  
  Unless thats some conservative dog whistle I don't know about, (and I'm no JKR apologist) your statement directly contradicts her own official answer as to the origin of the name:
  
  Why the name Robert Galbraith?
  
  I chose Robert because it’s one of my favourite men’s names, because Robert F Kennedy is my hero and because, mercifully, I hadn’t used it for any of the characters in the Potter series or The Casual Vacancy. Galbraith came about for a slightly odd reason. When I was a child, I really wanted to be called ‘Ella Galbraith’, and I’ve no idea why. I don’t even know how I knew that the surname existed, because I can’t remember ever meeting anyone with it. Be that as it may, the name had a fascination for me. I actually considered calling myself L A Galbraith for the Strike series, but for fairly obvious reasons decided that initials were a bad idea. Odder still, there was a well-known economist called J K Galbraith, something I only remembered by the time it was far too late. I was completely paranoid that people might take this as a clue and land at my real identity, but thankfully nobody was looking that deeply at the author’s name.
  
  source
- I don't see how. The initials JKR dont appear anywhere in there, is there something Im missing?

Lady Gaga:

Like a lot of celebrities?

.....yeah? What about that fact?

All we hear is, radio Gaga

Exactly.

Where’s Lord Gugu, btw?

All I know is that I love it when they call me big papa.

Often, while waving their hands in the air like they just don't care.

I mean, have you seen/heard her perform? She's very convincing.

yeah her music videos are absolutely mesmerizing. I would do anything she tells me.

Just wait until you hear about Engelbert Humperdinck.

Humperdink! Humperdink! Humperdink!
I bet he was born John Smith, and Engelbert Humperdinck is a stage name that he chose for some insane reason

Steph-Steph-ooh-la-la doesn't have quite the same ring.

Yet fergalicious-def-def Is okay with everybody. That girl didn't even bother to change her name.

Are we all not the same, us denizens of the fediverse?

Wait. Your parents didn't name you rhythmisaprancer?

There's a whole army of men who want to be referred to as women and women who want to be referred to as men, so Stephanie -> Lady Gaga is pretty tame.

We all know what to call you.
- Don't call at all, just block. Transphobes be like "How come no one uses Lemmy?"
- You think that upsets me UwU