In Hollywood why do all actors and such have fake names besides their own? How do they come up with them? If I went to hollywood could i make up something like Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler?

You don't have to go to Hollywood to start calling yourself Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler. You can just do that now, without even leaving your room.

Hell I can be Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler, his name is Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler, her name is Don Dickle Pickle Wiggler...we all are. One big Pickle Wiggler family.

It don't matter. Somewhere back on your lineage someone just decided their last name is now Smith, or whatever. They just said it, and set your surname, hundreds of years ago.

Or some dude at immigration misheard your name so just gave you a new one.

Even your first name...your mom just decided that for you one day. She said "you're gonna be called Pat and I'm gonna have your foreskin cut off" and you just said "waaa" and accepted it.

Either way. Names don't matter. It's all made up by someone. You can (unofficially) change your name anytime you want, but you can't get your original foreskin back.

It depends.

• Sometimes it's because of structural Anglocentrism making it harder to get an acting role with a foreign-sounding last name (e.g. "Ramon Antonio Gerard Estevez" becomes "Martin Sheen" or "Ilyena Lydia Vadilievna Mironov" becomes "[Dame] Helen Mirren")

• Sometimes it's just a matter of cropping a name or two ("Philip Anthony Hopkins")

• Sometimes it's just about sounding cooler ("Eric Bishop" becomes "Jamie Foxx" or "Caryn Elaine Johnson" becomes "Whoopi Goldberg")

• And sometimes it's because there's already a SAG member with your name ("Diane Hall" becomes "Diane Keaton" or "Michael Douglas" becomes... "Michael Keaton")

The SAG forces everyone to have their own unique names, similar to a copyright. It's their brand. So if there's already a John Doe, you have to pick something different even if that's your name.

If I recall correctly the Acting Guild has requirements for actor names. One is no two actors can have the same name which is why Harrison Ford was credited as Harrison J Ford in his early career.

1. To use Anglo-friendly name - eg “Estévez” markets worse than “Sheen”.
2. To separate themselves from others with similar names. Nicolas Coppola, for example, wanted to distance himself from his uncle Francis.
3. To make a memorable name - linked to 1. Thomas Mapother doesn’t stick in the brain as well. Nor does Norma Mortenson
4. Two concurrent actors should not share a professional name

I'd go with Dong Dickler.

I'm a performance artist, far from Hollywood, and I have an alias. It's called a stage name. It helps to keep my private and public lives separate, and it's cooler than my legal name.

Only like a third of actors change their name