10 Famous Historical Figures Who Changed Their Name

5. Harry Houdini

Perhaps unsurprisingly, illusionist and stunt performer Harry Houdini - who was famed for his incredible escape acts - decided to change his name for his performances from "Erik Weisz". Born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary in March 1874, Houdini's family then moved to the US in 1878 - changing their name to the German spelling of "Weiss" and his own first name to "Ehrich" when they arrived in Appleton, Wisconsin. Although he began performing as a trapeze artist at the age of nine, Houdini originally called himself "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air". It was only when he became a professional magician in 1890 that he changed his name to "Harry Houdini", in honour of the great French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Interestingly, the escape artist would claim in later life that the first part of his new name was a reference to Harry Kellar, a 19th-Century American magician who he admired, although it appears it was just an easier name by which his friends could refer to him as.