Real Names of Today's Famous Pop Stars

Many pop artists go by stage names rather than their real names. Sometimes this is because their real names are a bit hard to say. Not surprisingly, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is known simply as Lady Gaga and rapper Olubowale Victor Akintimehin is known as Wale. Some singers have names that are distinct enough that they can go by their first name alone. Madonna sounds better than Madonna Ciccone and Cher sounds better than Cherilyn Sarkisian. Some singers have cooler middle names. Robyn Rihanna Fenty not surprisingly goes by just Rihanna. There are singers like Carly Rae Jepsen that go by their real names when they really should have chosen a stage name. Carly Rae perhaps?

Katy Perry's real name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson. However, she always went by Katy Hudson. She did a gospel album when she was 16 under that name. Due to concerns about her real name sounding too much like that of actress Kate Hudson, she borrowed her mother's last name Perry to create her stage name when she was trying to break into the pop world.

Kesha Sebert could have gone mononymously as just Kesha, since it's distinct enough. However, she put a dollar sign in place of the s as an ironic gesture because she was completely broke while a song she was featured on, Flo Rida's Right Round, was all over the radio and broke a record for the most digital downloads.

These are the real names of some famous and maybe not so famous artists from the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of June 15th, 2013.