One of my favorite pieces of music trivia is that Stevie Wonder’s real first name is Steveland. (“Wonder” is also a stage name.) It’s just… such a fake sounding name. It’s not a name for a person. It’s a name for a fake country a kid makes up for a social studies project.
Not everyone knows that, but a fair number of people do. Here are some more obscure pieces of trivia.
Stevie Nicks? You probably assume she’s named Stephanie, or some variation thereof. Nope. Actual full name: Steveland Nicks. It’s a unisex name! Her management asked her to change it, though, for fear that her unusually deep voice would get her mistaken for a man.
How about Steven Spielberg’s full name? That’s an easy one, right? Wrong. Steveland Spielberg billed himself as “Steven” when he was directing his debut film The Sugarland Express, because he didn’t want his name and the movie’s name to be too similar. The alteration stuck, and a generation of film fans now know him as Steven.
In fact, virtually every famous Steve throughout history has actually been named Steveland — from from Steveland Jobs and Steveland Guttenberg to Steveland Seagal and even TV’s Steveland Urkel. In fact, the only actual Steven to achieve any kind of success in the entertainment industry is Morrissey… but that’s another story.
