Move Over, Snoop and Lily Allen: Five Other Stars Who Changed Their Stage Names

Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Just days after Snoop Dogg revealed he'll now go by the reggae moniker, Snoop Lion, Lily Allen is getting in on the act.

The English songbird has announced plans to change her professional alias back to her given name of Lily Rose Cooper as she returns to the studio to begin work on a new album.

But Allen Cooper and Snoop (real name Calvin Broadus) aren't the only entertainers who have changed their stage names. E! Online runs down five other big-name artists who've altered or otherwise dropped their more famous appellations.

1. Not So Cougariffic: We guess someone apparently couldn't make up their mind. The journeyman Indiana rocker started off in the mid-'70s using the nom de plume Johnny Cougar after his manager felt his German surname sounded too much like a fruit market for little kids. After finding success with such hits as "Jack & Diane" and "Hurts So Good" as John Cougar, he declared in1983 he would now go by John Cougar Mellencamp before settling on his real name John Mellencamp eight years later and jettisoning the Cougar forever.

2. Prince Becomes a Symbol: He was born Prince Rogers Nelson before going mononymous upon entering the music biz. However, in 1991, fed up with his contentious relationship with Warner Bros. Records, His Purpleness decided to change his name from Prince to an unpronounceable symbol, later dubbed the Love Symbol. He would eventually be referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" by Warner, the media and fans alike, or just "The Artist," before assuming his real name again in 2000 upon the expiration of his publishing contract with the label.

3. You Don't Know Diddy: Rap mogul Sean Combs has used a host of aliases throughout his career. In 1997 upon making his rap debut, he went by Puff Daddy, then changed it to P. Diddy in 2001 following a his acquittal on weapons charges stemming from a melee at a Manhattan club. Four years later, he was at it again, this time shortening things to Diddy. While the last moniker has appeared to stick, the hip-hopster couldn't resist last year switching—for one week only—to a new epithet, Swag, to celebrate his surviving a nasty bout of the flu. Separately, Combs has also deployed his first and middle names, Sean John, for his highly successful clothing empire.

4. Forget Mos Def, It's Yasiin Bey: Diddy and Snoop are not the only MCs to ditch their better-known handles. Rapper-actor Mos Def, who converted to Islam in his teens, retired his pseudonym this year in favor of Yasiin Bey, a reference to the 36th verse of the Quran.

5. Bye-Bye Cat Stevens, Hello Yusuf Islam: Perhaps the most famous name change in all of pop history, the British-born singer-songwriter Steven Georgiou adopted the stage monikerCat Stevens in the mid-'60s as a teenager before hitting it big as one of the world's most renowned musicians with such hits like "Moonshadow" and "Peace Train." A near-death experience and a spiritual awakening led Stevens to convert to Islam in 1977, and a year later he took the name Yusuf Islam, which he's kept to this day.