23 celebrity middle names you would not expect - including Adele, Beyonce, Billie Eilish and Leonardo DiCaprio

These famous faces have some very unusual full names
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There are times when we are reminded that, like us, celebrities are just people. That means that they have family traditions, embarrassing moments and even, sometimes, things they wish were different in their lives.

Online games site Unscrambled Words has researched the middle names of some of our best loved famous faces from the worlds of music, TV and film - and have found some which are purposeful, touching and just downright funny.

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A spokesperson for Unscrambled Words said: "Some stars completely ignore their middle names altogether. Some middle names pay homage to a close friend or relative, while others are random and creative."

So, read on to find out 23 unique and lesser-known celebrity full names.

Adele

Full name: Adele Laurie Blue Adkins

Adele has been topping the charts for almost two decades, since her first album ‘19’ was released in 2008 with hits including ‘Chasing Pavements’ and ‘Make You Feel My Love’. In an interview with popular Youtube beauty channel NikkieTutorials in December 2021, she revealed that her full name is Adele Adkins, but branded her surname - which is her mother’s maiden name, as “drab” and said she could have never used it in her professional career. It’s common knowledge that she also has two middle names, Laurie and Blue.

Singer Adele.Singer Adele.
Singer Adele.

Billie Eilish

Full name: Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell

Another singer who apparently doesn’t like her real last name is ‘Bad Guy’ singer Billie Eilish. But, instead of dropping hers, she decided to change hers. Billie’s real surname is O’Connell and Eilish is actually her middle name, but she decided to adopt her first and middle name as her stage name. She also has two more middle names, however; Pirate and Baird. Speaking to BBC News in 2017, Eilish revealed that Pirate was given to her after her older brother Finneas called her Pirate while her mum was pregnant with her, while Baird is her mother’s maiden name.

Singer Billie Eilish.Singer Billie Eilish.
Singer Billie Eilish.

Macaulay Culkin

Full name: Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin

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Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin does actually have the middle names Macaulay and Culkin, which means his name is doubled in both senses and he actually is called Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. The actor legally changed his name in 2019 after fans voted for this in a public poll. He had taken to his website, Bunny Ears, in 2018 to appeal to fans to help him pick a new middle name because he couldn’t remember his but claimed it was something “dumb”.

Taking to Twitter on Christmas Day 2018 he wrote: “Merry Christmas to me, from all of you! My new middle name has been chosen. You voted and the winner is clear.  In 2019 my new legal name will be: Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. It has a nice ring to it (if you like my name).”

Actor Macaulay Culkin.Actor Macaulay Culkin.
Actor Macaulay Culkin.

Elton John

Full name: Elton Hercules John

We all know that singer Elton John was actually born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, He decided to change this to give himself a more memorable moniker, and settled on Elton John so he could be named after two members of the blues band Bluesology; saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry. What you may not know, however, is that his middle name is Hercules - and no, he didn’t choose that because of the Disney hero, it’s because he saw a horse called Hercules on the sitcom show Steptoe and Son.

Singer Elton John.Singer Elton John.
Singer Elton John.

Kate Hudson

Full name: Kate Garry Hudson

Actress Kate Hudson has a middle name that is more commonly thought of as being a man’s name, Garry. There is a meaningful reason for this though and it’s because her uncle Garry died just a week before she was born, and so in tribute her mother, Goldie Hawn decided to pass the name on to her.

Actress Kate Hudson.Actress Kate Hudson.
Actress Kate Hudson.

Richard Gere

Full name: Richard Tiffany Gere

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Pretty Woman star Richard Gere also has a middle name which is usually associated with members of the opposite gender - Tiffany. He was given this middle name as it was his mother’s maiden name, as reported by Heart Radio.

Actor Richard Gere.Actor Richard Gere.
Actor Richard Gere.

James Corden

Full Name: James Kimberley Corden

Actor, comedian and TV host James Corden has the middle name Kimberley because of a family tradition. He revealed to Heat Magazine in 2010 that his family has a tradition of passing down the middle name to all sons that are born into the family.  He also said that when he was at school he used to pretend his middle name was Karl, before his sister told one of his friends and then other pupils in his school found out.

Comedian James Corden.Comedian James Corden.
Comedian James Corden.

Ralph Fiennes

Full name: Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Fiennes shared that he believes his first name was given to him after his father named him after his own step-grandfather. He has always kept his private life away from the public eye, however, and has not spoken about the origin of his middle name.

Actor Ralph Fiennes.Actor Ralph Fiennes.
Actor Ralph Fiennes.

Dido

Full name: Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong

Singer Dido was born on Christmas Day 1971 as Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong. She revealed in an interview with The Guardian in 2001 that she was named after the Queen of Carthage in Virgil’s Aeneid, but at home, at school and to her family and friends she was always called Dido. She said: “To be called one thing and christened another is actually very confusing and annoying. It’s one of the most irritating things that my parents did to me. I’m still irritated by it. Florian is a German man’s name. That’s just mean. To give your child a whole lot of odd names. They were all so embarrassing.”

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She even revealed that she didn’t always like being called Dido, and used to pretend that her name was Chloe when she was a child - until her mum came to collect her from a friend’s house and revealed her name to be Dido.

Singer Dido.Singer Dido.
Singer Dido.

Ben Affleck

Full name: Ben Geza Affleck-Boldt

Actor Ben Affleck’s full name also has a poignant meaning. His middle name, Geza, honours a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who was a friend of his family, while his full middle name includes Boldt which is his mother’s last name.

Speaking at the Writers Guild of America in 2015, as reported in Jewish Unpacked, he said:“My parents named me after a Hungarian friend of theirs named Geza.”. He also revealed that when he was a child he didn’t like his name at all. He said: “When I got to be in the fourth or fifth grade I threw a huge fit and I was like, ‘You are the worst namer of people in the world!”

He added that was when his mother told him about the origin of his unusual name. He said: “She told me that Geza was a friend of hers who died right around the time I was born, who was a Holocaust survivor in Hungary and the most exceptional person she knew. He had left from a train during the Holocaust taking Jews to death camps, and he went back and saved several others returning to break them out. She told me six million Jews were murdered and that men like him were brave and selfless. That name has never been short of a tremendous honour to me since that day.”

Actor Ben Affleck.Actor Ben Affleck.
Actor Ben Affleck.

Tina Fey

Full name: Elizabeth Stamatina Fey

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Actress Tina Fey isn’t actually called Tina at all, this is a name she gave to herself when she was growing up and has continued to use ever since. Her middle name was apparently inspired by her mother’s Greek ancestry - and that also inspired her chosen name. In a chat with The Quad in 2007, Fey said: "My first name is Elizabeth, but I’ve always gone by Tina even in, you know, from elementary school on.” Glamour also reported that when she was in high school she decided to drop her first name altogether and be known as Tina - the latter-half of her Greek middle name.

Actress Tina Fey.Actress Tina Fey.
Actress Tina Fey.

Hugh Grant

Full name: Hugh John Mungo Grant

Love Actually actor Hugh Grant revealed his full name was Hugh John Mungo Grant while he was giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry in 2011. The Leveson Inquiry was a public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following revelation of the use of phone hacking at News International, which included the now defunct title News of the World. Grant spoke about his concerns about his treatment by the press during proceedings.

Actor Hugh Grant.Actor Hugh Grant.
Actor Hugh Grant.

Matt Damon

Full name: Matt Paige Damon

Matt Damon’s middle name is Paige because of his mother’s surname, Carlsson-Paige. This was first reported by The Times in 2013.

Actor Matt Damon.Actor Matt Damon.
Actor Matt Damon.

Hilary Duff

Full name: Hilary Erhard Duff

Actress and singer Hilary Duff shares the same middle name as her father, Bob Duff. That middle name is Erhard. According to Wiki Fandom, Duff was named after her dad.

Actress Hilary Duff.Actress Hilary Duff.
Actress Hilary Duff.

Courteney Cox

Full name: Courteney Bass Cox

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Friends star Courteney Cox is named after her mother in more than one way, according to Wiki Fandom. Her mother was also called Courteney, and Cox was given the middle name of Bass because this is her mother’s maiden name.

Actress Courteney Cox.Actress Courteney Cox.
Actress Courteney Cox.

Jennifer Lawrence

Full name: Jennifer Shrader Lawrence

It’s widely reported that actress Jennifer Lawrence has the middle name of Shrader, but it’s unclear if there’s a particular reason for this as she has not spoken about it.

Actress Jennifer Lawrence.Actress Jennifer Lawrence.
Actress Jennifer Lawrence.

Nicolas Cage

Full name: Nicolas Kim Coppola

Nicolas Cage hasn’t just got a middle name that people may not know, but also a surname. Cage is the nephew of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, and up until 1982 he was called Nicolas Coppola.

Speaking to Wired in 2022, Cage explained the reason he changed his name. He said: “I changed my name because I was doing a little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High and I was still Nicolas Coppola, and people would not stop saying things like, ‘I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning,’ because of Apocalypse Now, and Robert Duvall saying, ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning,’ and it made it hard to work and I said, ‘I don’t need this,’ and changed it to Cage. It’s a combination of Luke Cage from Marvel comics, who was a character I liked, also named Power Man, and John Cage, the avant-garde composer.” He hasn’t, however, spoken about why his middle name is Kim.

Actor Nicolas Cage.Actor Nicolas Cage.
Actor Nicolas Cage.

Nicholas Hoult

Full name: Nicholas Caradoc Hoult

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Actor Nicholas Hoult doesn’t use his middle name in his professional life because it is a tricky one to pronounce: Caradoc. It means "the beloved one" in Welsh, as he explained when he was a guest on The Graham Norton Show 10 years ago. He also revealed the unusual surname is “good for [his] email address”.

Actor Nicholas Hoult.Actor Nicholas Hoult.
Actor Nicholas Hoult.

Kristen Stewart

Full name: Kristen Jaymes Stewart

Twilight actress Kristen Stewart has the middle name Jaymes, which has been reported in many outlets including Glamour for more than a decade. Like her first name, Stewart’s unusual middle name is gender neutral. She’s not revealed why this is her name, however.

Actress Kristen Stewart.Actress Kristen Stewart.
Actress Kristen Stewart.

Drew Barrymore

Full name: Drew Blyth Barrymore

Actress Drew Barrymore has a very meaningful name overall. Her first name, Drew, was the maiden name of her paternal great-grandmother, Georgie Drew, and her middle name, Blythe, was the surname of the family first used by her great-grandfather, Maurice Barrymore, according to Wiki Fandom.

Actress Drew Barrymore.Actress Drew Barrymore.
Actress Drew Barrymore.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Full name: Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio

DiCaprio revealed his middle name is Wilhelm back in 2001, as written about in News 24. Speaking at Italy’s Rudolph Valentino film awards that year, he said: “What you probably don’t know is my middle name - Wilhelm”. He also added that the name came from his mother’s side of the family. DiCaprio added that he shared "the overwhelming pride that we Italians take in who we are". He said that he was proud of his middle name, including his middle name, and had done the right thing by resisting the suggestion to change his name to a more American name. Lenny Williams, at the beginning of his career.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio.Actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Beyoncé

Full name: Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter

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Beyoncé is another singer who is so talented and well-known that people know her by her first name alone, but her full name is actually Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter. We all know that the iconic songstress’s surname is her double barrelled maiden name and married name. What you might not know is that her first name is her mother’s maiden name. This was revealed by her mother Tina Knowles-Lawson in 2020 on the Spotify podcast, In My Head With Heather Thompson, as reported by Elle. According to Z.B. Hill’s 2013 book ‘Superstars of Hip Hop: Beyoncé’, the name Giselle was chosen by Beyoncé’s father Matthew Knowles, but the reason that he supposedly chose this name has not been revealed.

Singer Beyoncé.Singer Beyoncé.
Singer Beyoncé.

Will Smith

Full name: Willard Carroll Smith Junior

Actor Will Smith is named after his late father, Willard Carroll Smith Senior, who died of cancer in 2016. It’s not known where the middle name Carroll originally came from, but it appears it does have significance in the Smith family as Smith named his first son, whom he had with then-wife Sheree Zampino in 1992, Willard Carroll "Trey" Smith III.

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