Why John Legend Doesn't Go By His Real Name

Every generation has certain artists that define their times, and John Legend may be one of them. His dreamy music has been topping the charts for years and he has already among the elite EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award) winners. We won't even get started on his too-precious-for-words role of dad to Miles and Luna or doting husband to Chrissy Teigen. Needless to say, if you're going to pick a stage name and live up to it, "Legend" was an ideal choice for this musician.

That's right! It might come as a surprise that "Legend" is not the singer's legal last name. It's common for artists to use pseudonyms, and more do that than you may think. Sometimes that change is for logistical reasons, like Nathan Lane who changed his name from Joseph Lane because there was already a Joseph Lane registered in Actors' Equity. While others like Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, whose stage name is inspired by Queen's hit song "Radio Ga Ga."

As for Legend? Well, his reasoning sits somewhere in the middle. However he felt in the early days of using his assumed name, we bet he is glad his name was almost a manifestation of his soon-to-come success.

John Roger Stephens was born December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio. Two decades later he would take the music world by storm as John Legend. It wasn't a name he thought of himself but the persona did find roots right away. Legend told Today that his stage name began as a studio nickname given to him by his friends and collaborators. The first person to call him "John Legend" was Chicago spoken word artist J. Ivy because the young pianist "sounded like one of our old school soul legends." The name just stuck, especially once collaborator Kanye West credited him as "John Legend" on a mixtape.

"And then, at some point, I had to decide, 'Am I going to stick with John Stephens?' which I was perfectly fine with," he explained. "I wasn't looking for a stage name. 'Or am I going to go with this more audacious name and call myself a legend before I even have a record deal?'" He added that he knew going with that name was a "bold move" but it got him started in his career with something to live up to.

He admitted to MTV back in 2008 that he would have never picked a name like Legend to describe himself. Clearly, the name was a great motivator for Legend to chase his dream. No one is going to say he didn't live up to the moniker.

John Legend and Chrissy Teigen's children, Miles and Luna, share Legend's real last name of "Stephens," though Teigen never changed hers after marrying the musician. They married in 2013 and kids followed soon after. In 2018, Teigen responded on Twitter to someone wondering why married women don't take their husband's last name. The cookbook author made a very astute point. Teigen replied: "my husband didn't even take his last name?"

She followed up her quip by explaining that she isn't against taking a partner's last name, just explaining that she never did (per Cosmopolitan). In her follow-up Twitter thread, Teigen wrote: "I was going to. just never got around to it and it isn't even the name he goes by. it wasn't some grand statement not to. I just don't see how the choice affects anyone else – why do people care so much!" We couldn't have expected any other kind of answer from Teigen, honestly.