Nicolas Cage reveals why he legally changed his name in 2025

Nicolas Cage has opened up about why he decided to officially change his name back in 2025.

The star, known for his roles in Con Air, Ghost Rider, and Captain Corelli's Mandolin, is now taking on a starring role in the new Amazon Prime series Spider Noir, and revealed that he changed his name.

While he has been known for decades on screen as Nicolas Cage, until 2025 Cage actually had a different name to his screen name.

It wasn't until this moment that he actually legally changed his name, meaning that now he is always Nicolas Cage.

Asked by Variety if it was 'strange' to go by a stage name, the star said: “I changed my name legally last year. I’m Nick Cage in life, and I’m Nick Cage on camera.”

The Oscar-winning actor revealed that he was first inspired to take on the surname while reading Marvel comics, which included the character Luke Cage, who had indestructible skin.

Nicolas Cage with his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola (L. Cohen/WireImage/Getty)

Cage said: “Cage is a name that I liked coming across in the comics - I just thought he had a cool name - and I grew up in a very avant-garde, artsy family and there was talk about John Cage and the experimental compositions that he did."

So that's where he got the name from, but why did he change his name to Nicolas Cage?

Well, when Cage said that he grew up in an 'avant-garde, artsy family' this was something of an understatement, as before his legal name change his surname was Coppola, as in Francis Ford Coppola, his uncle, making him part of the Coppola family.

Cage was born Nicolas Coppola, and even credited under this name in one of his early performances before he took on the surname Cage, in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Cage is starring in the new Spider Noir series (Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

Cage decided to change his name to create his own identity away from the presence of such a movie giant as Coppola, saying: “‘Tis better to be the patriarch of my own little family than the clown cousin on the margins of someone else’s, so I decided I’m going to bring it on and be ‘Cage'."

However, he didn't want to go the whole hog and change his name completely, instead keeping his first name.

“I thought, well, I’ll keep the name ‘Nicolas’ because my father named me Nicolas — with French spelling, which has always frustrated me, because everyone adds an ‘h.’ I don’t know why he gave me the French spelling! But he did,” Cage explained.