Today is Rembrandt’s birthday and that got me thinking about famous people who are known to us by one name. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is one. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni is another.
Edison Arantes do Nascimento is another variation, known best by his nickname Pelé.
Madonna Louise Ciccone of course.
Jesus certainly, though many keep trying to give him two names — Christ is the English version of the Greek Χριστός which is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (pronounced messiah) or annointed one; it isn’t part of his name.
Royalty and popes don’t really count, but there’s Homer (the Greek, not Simpson) and Virgil, and Ringo and Sting. And Prince if we count affectations. And, of course, NewMexiKen.
Any others?
Cher comes to mind….
Speaking of Pelé, there’s a long line of soccer players (though not a brazilian of them) that go by one name, the most famous recently have been Kaká (a nickname based on his given name Ricardo), and Ronaldinho.
It’s interesting that you have a couple of different categories of one-named people.
(1) People who are so well-known or unique that you can call them by their actual first or last name only (Hitler, Michelangelo, Madonna).
(2) People who go by a [self-]invented one-word moniker or nickname (Cher, Sting, Kaká).
(3) People who only have one name or no contemporaneous surname (Homer, Virgil, Jesus).
Of course, Cherilyn Sarkisian.
And Jewel Kilcher.
How about Charo who’s real name is María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Gutiérrez de los Perales Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Hinojosa Rasten? I’d shorten that too.
Liberace other wise known as Wlasziu Valentino Liberace?
Cher? Known to her mother as Cherilyn Sarkasian LaPier.
Shakira? Shakira Isobel Mebarak Ripoll is her full name.
Galileo?
Batman?
“famous people who are known to us by one name”
“Jesus certainly”
Really? I am amazed there is no proof any such person existed. No evidence that I have ever seen, much less anyone else…. Then again there is no proof his did not exist either….
how about:
Renoir, Monet, & Manet
Could not resist.
Muhammad
Confucius
Attila
Houdini
Yoda.
Geronimo and Cochise
Nero
Plato
Socrates
Aristotle
Kramer.
Newman
How about Elvis? We know his last name but never use it. That might qualify Oprah, too.
Elvis Costello? 🙂
Cantinflas (Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes)
Twiggy (Lesley Hornby)
W
Sting
My bad. He’s listed in the original post.
Ichiro.
And don’t forget all the rappers. That’s a category unto itself, I think.
With a tip of the hat to today’s news, how about Pink?
Bono and The Edge.
Beck. Bjork. Enya. Fabian.
Shaq comes close, and Magic. And for a while if you said Michael, it meant Jordan (or I suppose Jackson).
Tiger?
Whoopi?
Popeye.
Bluto
Sampson
Delilah
Ringo…. yes we know his last name, but it wasn’t necessary to know who you meant.