With the news that rapper Dante Smith is to ditch his Mos Def alias and call himself Yasiin from next year, we give you five other artists who have changed their monikers.
Take Five... Jamie Foxx
Lie back and consider the name Jamie Foxx. Cool. Smooth. Suave. A real man's man, yeah? It's a name that just screams actor/singer/all-round entertainer. Now do the same for Eric Bishop. You'd probably change it, too.
Take Four... Prince
In an attempt to "emancipate" himself from the shackles of Warner Bros, Prince famously changed his name to what he called the "Love Symbol" but what everyone else referred to as the squiggle that looked a bit like a cross between a traffic sign and a sailor tattoo.
Take Three... David Bowie
The chances of The Thin White Duke being confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees are pretty slim, but back then it was enough for him to make the Jones to Bowie switch. Bowie came from Jim Bowie, an American frontiersman who died at the Alamo.
Take Two... Fatboy Slim
Norman Cook doesn't sound like the sort of person you'd find bopping behind the decks, which is no doubt why he went for Fatboy Slim rather than DJ Norm. But, bizarrely, he was originally called Quentin, which asks the question, why Norman?
Take One... Michael J Fox
If you think you know what the J stands for, you're wrong - it doesn't stand for anything! The time-travelling teenager was originally Michael A Fox (A for Andrew), but put in the J because there was already a Michael Fox registered with the Screen Actors Guild, and (probably) because he didn't want people thinking he was actually a woodland animal.
