I’ve always been fascinated by stage names and noms de plume. I always want to know the root of the change. For actors, many adopt stage names simply because there are already other people registered with one of the unions with the same name. That’s what happened to Emma Stone (her real name is Emily). For other actors, they were often encouraged to adopt stage names if their birth names were too complicated or “hard to pronounce” for Americans. As you can imagine, this happened with many actors with “ethnic” names – Margarita Carmen Cansino became Rita Hayworth, Ramón Estévez became Martin Sheen, Kalpen Suresh Modi became Kal Penn. Well, apparently, Leonardo DiCaprio almost suffered the same fate.

Leonardo DiCaprio has longtime fans pondering if a former teen heartthrob by any other name is still just as famous. The Oscar winner recently revealed that he was originally told his name was “too ethnic” and advised by one of his early agents to perform under a stage name, which brought a strong reaction out of his father.

“I finally got an agent. They said, ‘Your name is too ethnic,’” he recounted on the New Heights podcast. “I go, ‘What do you mean? It’s Leonardo DiCaprio?’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never going to hire you. Your new name is Lenny Williams.’”

DiCaprio added, “I said, ‘What is Lenny?’ I was 12,13. I said, ‘What is Lenny Williams?’ ‘We took your middle name and we made it — now you’re Lenny.’”

The One Battle After Another star recalled to his co-star Benicio Del Toro that his dad saw a headshot featuring the new stage name, “ripped it up, and he said, ‘Over my dead body.’”

Del Toro recalled a similar experience. “I was told the same thing. ‘You’re Benny Del,’” he shared with DiCaprio.

[From Deadline]

I actually remember when Leo was coming up, in the pre-Titanic days, and how it felt very “exotic” that he had this strong Italian name and no one made him change it. Like, it helped him stand out from the crowd – there were tons of Matts, Johns, Pauls, Bens, Marks and Chrises. There was only one Leonardo DiCaprio. Anyway, I’m glad that Leo’s dad put his foot down about it. It’s a victory for all of us with “hard-to-pronounce” ethnic names.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.