WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Good question. Just ask some of the Hollywood celebrities whose careers would probably never have gotten off the ground using the name they were born with.

Back in the days when the major Hollywood movie studios literally ruled the performer's lives with iron-fisted control—told the stars which movies they were allowed to make, who they could date, hushed up affairs, covered up pregnancies of unwed actresses, made drunk driving arrests go away and paid off victims, and in some instances it's even rumored that they covered up murder—they also controlled the star's name.

Nowadays it's a matter of individual choice whether or not a celebrity wants to select a name more suited to his/her career with some nearly unpronounceable names appearing on the marquee belonging to celebrities who chose to stay with their real name…something that never would have been allowed in the golden days of the studios.

Here are a few celebrities, some of them old school and others current, whose name change definitely helped their careers.

Fred Astaire, certainly one of the greatest dancers of the 20^th century, but would he have been as successful as Frederick Austerlitz? And what about his partner from many of his films, Ginger Rogers? Would she have been as popular as Virginia Katherine McMath? Somehow, Frederick Austerlitz and Virginia Katherine McMath just wouldn't have lit up the marquee.

And then there's Mariska Hargitay's mother, Vera Jayne Palmer. She might not have been as successful without the name change to Jayne Mansfield. And Mariska's co-star on Law & Order—SVU, would Tracy Morrow be as interesting as Ice-T is, especially for someone who started his career as a rapper?

How many women would actually have swooned over the man who is considered one of "Hollywood's all-time definitive romantic leading men" if Archibald Alexander Leach hadn't changed his name to Cary Grant?

Would that famous Jack Benny stare have been as funny coming from Benjamin Kubelsky?

What about a movie marquee announcing Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. and Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff rather than Rock Hudson and Doris Day?

Would "Missed it by that much!" or "would you believe…" have been such great catch phrases if they had been uttered by Donald James Yarmy rather than Don Adams?

Would Boris Karloff have been anywhere near as frightening if he had kept his birth name of William Henry Pratt?

Would Wolfgang Puck have been as successful as a chef and restaurateur under the name of Wolfgang Johannes Topfschnig?

Would we be as mesmerized by the magical illusions of David Copperfield if they were being performed by David Seth Kotkin?

Would Whoopi Goldberg be as funny if she was working under her real name of Caryn Elaine Johnson?

We have that teenage song and dance team from those old MGM musicals, Joseph Yule, Jr., and Frances Ethel Gumm. Would they have been as successful if they hadn't changed their names to Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland?

And what about one of the most famous comedy teams in show business history, Crocetti and Levitch? You probably know them better as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

What about Bernard Schwartz? Would he ever have been as popular a leading man if he hadn't changed his name to Tony Curtis?

And Sir Elton John, does he look like a Reginald Kenneth Dwight?

Can you picture Tina Fey as Elizabeth Stamatina Fey?

Or Oscar winner Jamie Foxx as Eric Marlon Bishop?

Would Oscar winner Ben Kingsley's statuette be the same with the name Krishna Pandit Bhanji engraved on it?

Can you picture Elvis Costello as Declan Patrick MacManus?

And what about Oscar winner Michael Caine? Would he have that Oscar if he hadn't changed his name from Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Jr.? 

And then there's that most famous mouse of all time. Did you know that Walt Disney had originally given his mouse creation the name of Mortimer? Walt's wife, Lillian, felt that Mortimer didn't fit the character Walt had created. She suggested the name Mickey.

There are so many more that I could have listed here, the famous who changed their name in pursuit of a career. Some from days of yore and others current. Do you have any particular favorite celebrities who have chosen to do the name change?