In the name of fame

Cary Grant: A nice "monosyllabic" surname

Suave, debonair... and christened Archibald Leach. It's 70 years since Hollywood icon Cary Grant wisely changed his moniker. Is changing your name still a route to fame and fortune?

When Bristol-born Archibald Leach landed himself a Hollywood film contract in 1931, the 27-year-old actor decided his real name wouldn't sit easily on cinema marquees.

Having just completed a stage show playing a character called Cary Lockwood, Archie considered adopting the name full time.

"No, I'm Spartacus, Kirk!"

Studio advisors said "Cary" was fine, but that "Lockwood" was far too long in a business dominated by Gables, Coopers and Bogarts.

Sturdy and reliable Grant "jumped" out of a list of monosyllabic names compiled for Leach's perusal and on 7 December 1931, the euphonious Cary Grant was born.

Acting, perhaps by its very nature, is a profession littered with discarded names and sloughed off former identities.

Issur Danielovitch was pretty sure his Russian moniker wouldn't bring him fame and fortune in the United States. After toying with Norman Dems - wanting to keep a "D" surname - "Izzy" settled on Kirk Douglas.

Keeping it real

"After going from Issur to Izzy and then to Kirk, names have never meant anything to me," said the legendary star.

"No, I'm not related to Cary, Sir Maurice."

Sir Maurice Micklewhite is a bit more picky and has refused to follow Douglas's lead and legally switch to his assumed name - Michael Caine.

"When I go home I leave Michael Caine the film star in the studio," he said on being knighted under his real name.

His indifference for Caine might have something to do with it being a pseudonym of his second choice.

He first trod the boards as Michael Scott, but as his career blossomed an agent broke the news that another actor already went by that name.

Not just actors

Standing in a phone box in Leicester Square, Micklewhite wracked his brains for a suitable alternative, before his eyes fatefully settled on a nearby poster advertising the film The Caine Mutiny.

"Who'd take someone called 'Blair' seriously?"

Journalist Eric Blair was just as keen as Sir Maurice to draw a line been the pseudonym and the real man.

The old Etonian had completed a book about his experiences living among the most wretched victims of the Depression and had submitted it to his publisher under the nom de plume "X" - to save his family blushes.

Thinking "X" would not go far as a serious literary handle, he asked the publisher to choose between several other options. PS Burton and H Lewis Allways were dismissed and Down and Out in Paris and London finally went to the shops with George Orwell as the author.

Friend Anthony Powell asked if Blair ever thought of becoming Orwell full time. "I'd have to write under another name if I did," the author replied.

Ready to be mocked?

Others are more attached to their assumed names. Boxer Muhammad Ali famously abandoned Cassius Clay under the influence of the Nation of Islam movement, saying Clay was his "slave name".

Don't call me Clay

And some are happy to change their name as often as they change their socks.

Prince Rogers Nelson (Prince, The Artist Former Known As Prince, The Artist, etc.) and Sean Combs (Sean "Puffy" Combs, Puff Daddy, P Diddy) are just two examples.

Though some people go through the legal process of changing their name, there's nothing to stop anyone waking up one morning and demanding everyone they met call them by a new name.

But choosing a suitable new moniker is a minefield, particularly if others are uncharitable enough to mock your new identity, particularly if you try to break fresh ground.

A number, not a name

The Daily Mail found much mirth in the assumed name of one academic popular with Prime Minister Tony Blair, Perri 6.

Err, Rumplestiltskin? No

"The name appears to come from the same stable as R2-D2, Joe 90 and Zaphod Beeblebrox," the paper said before suggesting Mr 6 might in fact be David Keith Ashworth.

It's not just ridicule you risk, though. The wrong name can actually change your life for the worse, according to the UK's sole name analyst Laurence Y Payg (The Y ensures success and safety, he says.)

Mr Payg has studied a 3,000-year-old Chinese system which suggests that girls called Megan will be bad tempered and jealous.

The world's Joshuas fare even worse, destined to grow up stressed and introverted and may turn to drink and drugs. Still, being a Josh has to be better than being an Archie Leach?