5 Famous Artists Who Used Hilarious Pseudonyms
There’s a number of reasons why a creative person might use a pseudonym. Maybe they’re living in a time where a name that gave away their gender might hinder their success (you know, all times), their parents saddled them with a decidedly unartistic name or they want to riff about farts without it affecting their political career.
That said, there’s almost never a reason to choose a pseudonym that’s weird as hell, so we salute those who go the extra bizarre mile in their renaming efforts.
Mark Twain
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Mark Twain might be itself the world’s most famous pseudonym, but before Samuel Clemens settled on the homage to riverboats, he tried out a number of others of varying inexplicability. These included W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab, Rambler, Grumbler, Peter Pencilcase’s Son, John Snooks, Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Sergeant Fathom, Sieur Louis de Conte and Josh. He wasted few words, but mostly on his pseudonyms.
Benjamin Franklin
Franklin began experimenting with pseudonyms out of necessity as a teenager, as his brother only accepted his submissions to the New England Courant when he didn’t know they were written by his stupid baby bro. He made a lifelong habit of “wittily presenting a controversial or libelous issue or two sides of an argument while remaining anonymous” under names like Silence Dogood, Anthony Afterwit, Martha Careful, Busy Body, Alice Addertongue, Fanny Mournful and Caelia Shortface, which just seems unnecessarily rude.
Lewis Capaldi
Musicians who write songs for others often do so under pseudonyms to put a boundary between these different identities, but Capaldi’s alter egos are decidedly more basic than his public persona would let on. These include Anita Jobby, which Capaldi helpfully explained as Scottish slang for taking a dump, and Sooka Phatwan, which no one needs explained. He specifically noted that he uses these names for songs “in case they’re absolute fucking duds,” so musicians, maybe think hard about the next Sooka Phatwan t that crosses your desk.
Jonathan Swift
A rarer but nobler use of the pseudonym is to start a beef, which Swift did when he published a series of almanacs for the sole purpose of harassing famous almanac author John Partridge. Under the name Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., Swift predicted and then confirmed Partridge’s death in a widespread hoax that annoyed Partridge for the rest of his life, all because of some nebulous disagreement about religion and April Fool’s Day. You have to ire a man who adopts a name that literally means “squabble dick” solely for troll purposes.
Taylor Swift
The pseudonym of a potentially more recently relevant Swift seemed at first to be even more fascinating when Taylor revealed that she’d written the lyrics of the Calvin Harris song “This Is What You Came For” and produced a cover of her own song “Look What You Made Me Do” under the name Nils Sjöberg. If you’re like us, you might be asking, does this mean Taylor Swift is the world’s only modern superfan of 18th-century Swedish poet Nils Sjöberg? You can find all kinds of connections between them, if you’re so inclined, as Swift encourages her fans to be. But no: Swift chose the name only because “those are two of the most popular names of Swedish males.” She never lets us have a good conspiracy.
