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Kat Dennings Reveals Her Real Name—and It May Surprise You

1 year ago 75

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Kat Dennings Officially Engaged to Musician Andrew W.K.

Here's a fun fact about Kat Dennings: That is not the actress' birth name.

The Shifting Gears sitcom actress reflected on choosing her stage name years at a young age—several years before she made her onscreen acting debut.

"I chose it when I was 9," Kat told Kylie Kelce on the March 13 episode of her podcast Not Gonna Lie With Kylie Kelce. "Because my real last name is Litwack. That's all you need to hear. And at 9, I was like, 'This isn't going to work for me. This is not going to work. I can't see that name. She, slash I, was very ahead of her time."

The 38-year-old, who acted in commercials before she made her official onscreen acting debut on a 2000 episode of Sex and the City, continued, "I was like, 'This can't be displayed on a poster. It shan't happen.'"

When deciding her stage name, Kat drew inspiration from Janine Denni, the French wife of late The Black Cauldron author Lloyd Alexander, a writer she said was her mother's best friend.

"I went there every week until I was 15 years old. They were like my grandparents," the 2 Broke Girls alum said. "I thought it would be a super sick idea if I took her name and made it like, kind of different. So Dennings is from her."

The Thor star, whose full real name is Katherine, also drew inspiration from a fellow actress' movie character when choosing her stage name.

"Kat, I chose, because Christina Ricci's character Kat in the movie Casper was my favorite character at the time," she said, "So I was like, 'OK, Kat Dennings, this is it. I can really picture it."

Gilbert Flores/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images

Kat has spoken before about her stage name decision. "I didn’t want to use my family name because I thought, A, it was a little hideous, and B, I wanted to know when someone really knew me or they didn't," she told Philadelphia magazine in 2008. "I was a precocious youngster."

The actress added that while Litwack is a "sturdy Polish-Jewish name," she "used to be really touchy about it." She added, "But I couldn’t care less now."

Read on to find out the real names of more celebs...

Amy Sussman/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank

Katherine Victoria Litwack

Kat Dennings adopted a stage name at age 9, years before she made her official onstage acting debut on a 2000 episode of Sex and the City.

The 2 Broke Girls alum told Kylie Kelce on the March 13, 2025 episode of her podcast Not Gonna Lie With Kylie Kelce that she didn't think her real name name should "be displayed on a poster."

The actress drew inspiration for her stage name from Christina Ricci's character Kat in the film Casper as well as the surname of Janine Denni, the French wife of late The Black Cauldron author Lloyd Alexander, a writer she said was her mother's best friend.

Emma McIntyre/WireImage

Cher

For more than three decades, Cher was made to believe that her legal first name was Cherilyn. It wasn't until the late '70s, when she obtained her birth certificate in order to change her full name to just Cher, that she discovered that she had been registered as "Cheryl."

In her 2024 memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the pop icon recalled her mom Georgia Holt's reaction to this discovery.

She said her mother, who gave birth to her at age 19, responded, "Let me look at that!" and then, recalling her postpartum experience, added, "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."

Prince Williams/WireImage

Shaboozey

The outlaw country star's real name is Collins Obinna Chibueze. He adopt Shaboozey as his nickname and later used it as his official alias as a music artist after his Virginia high school misspelled his surname that way.

Steve Jennings/FilmMagic

Austin Richard Post

Congratulations to Post Malone, who incorporated his surname into his stage name. However, the rapper does prefer his close friends to call him by his real name.

During the 2024 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift referred to him as "Austin" when they won the Best Collaboration award for their duet "Fortnight."

(Disney/Eric McCandless)

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson

Though the singer initially released a Christian album under her birth name in 2001, she felt the stage name Katy Perry—inspired by her mom's maiden name—might meet pop fans more in awe, awe, awe. 

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for iHeartMedia

Belcalis Almanzar

Cardi B took on the name Bacardi after family and friends started calling her sister Hennessy. Later on she shortened the name to something that suited her quite a bit more.

Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

Rachel Meghan Markle

Before she became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was briefly known as Rachel. 

Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Stagecoach

Eilleen Regina Edwards

Shania Twain shared the origin story of her stage name during an appearance on Apple Music's Home Now Radio: "In short, I was born, Eilleen Regina Edwards, and then I was adopted and I became Eilleen Regina Twain. Then I became a professional singer and I needed a stage name that sounded a little less like my grandmother's name, because I'm named after my grandmother, both my grandmothers, Eilleen and Regina. I think, in my mind, I was just not really wanting to be called my grandmother's name onstage, so I decided to change it to Shania Twain. I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born."

Christopher Victorio/Shutterstock

Kayleigh Rose Amstutz

The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s onstage persona—Chappell Roan—has always been a “drag project,” allowing her to set boundaries and separate her personal life from the industry.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Jelena Noura Hadid

Oddly enough, Gigi Hadid got her stage name in school when the teacher would confuse her and a girl named Helena. Since her mom called her "gigi" as a term of endearment at home, she told the teacher to just call her Gigi and it simply stuck. 

Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Mark Vincent

If you're looking for an explosive action-star name, how about Vin Diesel instead?

Chelsea Lauren/REX/Shutterstock

Destiny Hope Cyrus

Miley Cyrus' bright smile is what inspired her childhood nickname, Smiley. Eventually the name was shortened to Miley and it stuck. 

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Peter Gene Hernandez

Apparently the singer looked more like a Bruno than a Peter, so one day his dad started calling him Bruno. Ever since, he has been known as Bruno Mars.

Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for Live Nation

Stefani Germanotta

Before the meat dresses and chart-topping music, Lady Gaga was just an everyday girl from New York.

Rich Fury/Getty Images

Daniel Sudeikis

Jason Sudeikis confirmed on Today that he was named Daniel after his father, but following some confusion, his mom started using his middle name Jason to avoid confusion. 

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Emily Stone

Emma Stone ended adopting this stage name after finding out that the Screen Actors Guild already had a member registered under her birthname. 

Jim Smeal/REX/Shutterstock

Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon

Turns out Reese isn't even Reese Witherspoon's middle name. The actress chose the moniker in honor of her mother, whose maiden name is Reese.

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Elizabeth Woolridge Grant

Every artist has an alter ego, and Lana Del Rey just happens to be the persona of choice for the singer. 

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Christopher Edwin Breaux

In 2014, Frank Ocean legally changed his name because, why not? 

Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival

Elizabeth Stamatina Fey

A little known fact about 30 Rock's Tina Fey is that she is actually named Elizabeth. The comedian made a not so subtle tribute to her birth name by naming her character Liz Lemon.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Calvin Broadus

This pioneer of West Coast rap would later go on to be known as Snoop Dogg.

Lester Cohen/Getty Images for NARAS

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor

Turns out the "Royals" singer is really into learning about the aristocracy, hence the reason why she chose the name Lorde, but with a feminine 'e.'

Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images

Enrique Morales

Before he started shaking his bonbon for the masses, music superstar Ricky Martin went by this everyday name.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Amethyst Kelly

It's hard to believe that Iggy Azalea was born Amethyst Kelly!

Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock

Adam Richard Wiles

Fans were confused when Taylor Swift thanked then-boyfriend Adam in an acceptance speech, which lead people to the discovery that Calvin Harris is simply a stage name. The DJ told Shortlist magazine he chose the name because his first single was more soulful and wanted something a bit more "racially ambiguous."

Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images

Jennifer Anastassakis

Before she became a household name, this was what erstwhile Friend Jennifer Aniston answered to.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Alicia Augello Cook

Alicia Keys didn't always have such a musical name.

Mike Coppola/WireImage

Thomas Mapother IV

Before he became arguably the biggest movie star in the world, Tom Cruise went by this name.

Kevin Lee/Getty Images

Natalie Hershlag

Back when she was born in 1980, this was how the future bigtime actress Natalie Portman greeted the world.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Amanda Lee Rogers

Before she became a big-time TV star and married Ellen DeGeneres, this was the name Portia de Rossi answered to.

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