Emma Stone reveals the hilariously bad reason she stopped using her real name

Emma Stone has revealed the reason why she goes by Emma Stone, and not Emily, the name on her birth certificate.

And bless her, we can hear Emily Jean Stone’s toes curling from here.

Appearing on The Tonight Show in the US, she revealed why she’s now Emma and not Emily.

“I was super blonde, and my real name is Emily, but I wanted to be called Emma because of Baby Spice and guess what, now I am,” she told Jimmy Fallon.

“So, that’s pretty messed up.”

“It wasn’t necessarily because of her,” she added, but then explained that, yes, it pretty much was entirely because of her.

“But yes, in second grade, did I go up to the teacher and ask her to call me Emma? Yes I did.

“And was it because of Emma Lee Bunton from the Spice Girls? Yes it was.”

There were other options, however, when she decided to give acting a proper go, aged 16.

“I had the option of Emily J. Stone and it’s kind of like Michael J. Fox, and I love Michael J. Fox, but I don’t think I could pull off the J. So then I changed it to Emma because, you know, it’s closer to Emily, but most people call me Em that know me well,” she added.

“I would love to get her back.”

She’s previously spoken about the struggles of choosing a name as a young star.

“Well, I was 16 when I found out at SAG I couldn’t have my own name,” she told W Magazine.

“So to ask a 16 year old to pick a new name is really an interesting process because I was like, ‘I’m going to be Riley. My name is going to be Riley Stone.’

“And so my name was Riley Stone for about six months and I did a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle and one day they were like, ‘Riley, Riley,’ and I had no idea who they were talking to and they were like, ‘Hey, hey come on we need you on set.’ And I was like, ‘Oh I’m not Riley, I can’t be Riley.’”

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