10 Best, Worst and Most WTF Artist Name Changes

Last week, The Weeknd announced that he was working on his final album under the moniker that launched his career. Fittingly enough, the news that The Weeknd was over broke on a Monday.

The singer, who is currently branching out into acting with his role in HBO’s upcoming series The Idol, went on to clarify that if he did release more music, it would be under his legal name, Abel Tesfaye.

A mid-career name change is risky, especially when an existing stage name has achieved such massive success. Sometimes a change can spell doom for the artist’s career. Sometimes it catapults the artist to even greater success. Other times it won’t accomplish much more than leaving us scratching our heads. Here are 10 mid-career name changes from across that spectrum.

Best: Snoop Doggy Dogg / Snoop Dogg

In the paraphrased words of Justin Timberlake’s character in The Social Network, “Drop the ‘Doggy.’ Just ‘Snoop Dogg.’ It’s cleaner.” The rapper, born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, launched his career under the triple barrel moniker but shortened it upon signing to No Limit Records in 1998. Though the change was due to contract disputes with his previous label, the name “Snoop Dogg” ultimately stuck. For a time.

WTF: Snoop Dogg / Snoop Lion

From 2012 to 2013, Snoop Dogg campaigned to henceforth be known as Snoop Lion, releasing both an album and a documentary under the name. In 2013, he released an album under the name Snoopzilla before reverting back to the proven formula. He’s currently known as Snoop Dogg once again. He was also known as Snoop Dogg at the time because, let’s be honest, nobody actually called him Snoop Lion.

Worst: Christine Perfect / Christine McVie

Yes, Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter Christine McVie (née Perfect) reached the height of her success performing under her married name. But seeing as she already had an established career performing under her fitting maiden name prior to marrying future ex-husband John McVie, we just don’t get why she would settle for a stage name that wasn’t Perfect.

WTF: Prince / The Symbol

Prince changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol is one of the strangest and most referenced mid-career name changes of all time. At the time, Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson) was in a long-running dispute with his label, Warner Bros, which was withholding his work out of fear of over-saturating the music market. Offended that Warner Bros had commodified “the name my mother gave me,” Prince rebelled by becoming The Symbol. And a million “the artist formerly known as” jokes were born.

Best: The Dixie Chicks / The Chicks

The Chicks' name change came in the middle of promoting their 2020 album Gaslighter. This was a ballsy move, and you could easily make the case that the change hurt their comeback. Regardless, removing the word “Dixie” (which has Confederate origins) was the right thing to do. Besides, a little confusion is hardly the worst thing to come out of the band standing up for what they believe in.

Worst: Lady Antebellum / Lady A

Like The Chicks, Lady A also set out to do the right thing by removing a Confederate buzzword from their name. Unlike The Chicks, they forgot to make sure they had the rights to their new name. The result was a long, high-profile legal battle with Seattle-based blues singer Anita White, who also performs under the name Lady A. The tussle has overshadowed whatever else they’ve been doing since 2020.

Best: Ke$ha / Kesha

There was a time and place for the dollar sign. It fit perfectly into the carefree party-girl persona Kesha put forth in the early 2010s. But as she matured and her output became a candid reflection of overcoming personal trauma, her name matured with her.

WTF: Kanye West / Ye

This might actually be the least WTF thing Ye has done recently.

Worst: Diddy, etc.

Individually, none of the monikers of the multi-hyphenate hip-hop mogul born Sean Combs are bad. It’s just that there are too damn many of them. Since the early '90s, he’s cycled through several names, most notably Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and Diddy. Combs himself has admitted to not being able to keep up. We’d think a businessman wouldn’t want the name recognition for their brand to be so out of whack, but he’s a billionaire and we’re not, so what do we know?

Hell, no: Drake Bell/Drake Campana

Remember actor Drake Bell from Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh? After being accused of abuse by his ex and before pleading guilty to child endangerment charges in a case that included accusations of grooming and sexual assault, Drake Bell moved to Mexico, changed his last name to "Campana" and started singing in Spanish. We'll say it again, for those who didn't hear: We should've stopped Drake Bell right there.