Martin Sheen, right, reveals the reason he regrets changing his name.
It's not uncommon for entertainers to change their names. It can be something easily identifiable in some situations, like 50 Cent; most people would reason that his parents didn't name him after a denomination of money. But for some, it's harder to pick out, like Miley Cyrus. While her name is now legally Miley, her birth name was Destiny.
The reason entertainers change their names varies; for some, it's because it sounds cooler, or it's their nickname, but for others, it's simply because there is already someone else in the acting guild who already uses the name.
When it comes to Martin Sheen, his name was chosen for none of the above reasons, and in a recent interview, he reveals that he regrets making the change. Sheen, who's the father of two famous sons, Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, wasn't born Martin. In fact, his first name isn't even remotely close to Martin. As a child born to a father from Spain, the elder Sheen was originally named Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez.
It was his move to New York City to become an actor that had him questioning how far he would get with the name his parents gave him. In a clip from the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz, Sheen explains why he felt the need to change his name.
Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen, and Emilio Estevez.John Matthew Smith/Wikimedia Commons, Angela George/Wikimedia Commons, Gabriele/Wikimedia Commons
"Officially, I've never changed my name," he said. "I'm still Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez, and I love my name. I just arrived at a time, in a place where it was hard enough to get a job as an actor when I started in 1959 in New York City. To have a surname, a Hispanic surname at that time was not an advantage because, unfortunately, there was great prejudice in the city against Puerto Ricans and the Puerto Rican community."
Sheen laughs before finishing his thought, "Of course, they were American citizens by birth, they still are, but they were the 'newest immigrants' so called at the time, and they were taking the blame for all the problems in the city at that time."
He explains that though he identified with the Hispanic community, he had to step outside of his name to be more anonymous in nationality. Sheen knew that it was only his name that would identify him as Hispanic since he did not present with the more stereotypical Hispanic features many Americans associate with the ethnicity.
He further recognizes that changing his name disappointed his father. Though he never made the name change legal, the elder Sheen expresses deep regret for doing it at all. It was this deep regret that pushed him to encourage his son, Emilio, not to follow in his footsteps by assuming a more American-sounding name.
"I regret it deeply," Sheen says. "I remember when my children were starting to come into the profession and they were deciding whether or not to use the Estévez or to change it, and Emilio was on the verge of changing the last name, and just using Emilio Sheen, and then he saw it in print, and this just doesn't fit. And frankly, I begged him to keep it. I said you know, it's one of my biggest regrets that I didn't keep my name. I said, you know, we're going into a new millennium and Hispanic people in our country...particularly in the state of California, are going to be almost in the majority. So, I said that I think that the reverse is happening for you, that I had to deal with."
Sheen thought that the Hispanic population was ingrained into the community enough that his child wouldn't need to succumb to the pressure to alter the outward display of his ethnicity.
In an interview on Talk Stoop with Nessa, Emilio chats with the host about his father's name change regrets and why he didn't change his name as well.
"A lot of people, a lot of his agents were saying if you want to work in this business you've gotta have a more anglo sounding name and of course times have changed," Emilio shares before later adding his reason for keeping the original last name. "So when I began to get into this business, we had that conversation and he said don't make the same mistake I did. But I pushed back and was like 'well, you know, I don't really look Latino anyway.' He said the face of Latin America is changing, we come in all sizes and shapes, and I realize this now on a much deeper level but it was honoring the Hispanic heritage and I own that, and the Hispanic community has embraced me because of that."
Emilio continues, "And I can't tell you how many people on the street stop me on the street and say just seeing your name on a poster, just seeing your name on the screen meant so much to me, you have no idea, so that was ultimately a very important step."
Charlie Sheen.Angela George/Wikimedia Commons
Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Estévez but adopted the nickname Charlie at age four due to his uncle also being named Carlos. When he got into acting, he decided to go with Sheen, explaining in his memoir, The Book of Sheen that he wanted to honor his father.
"Using Sheen allowed me to slam the door on the recent academic and athletic failures I felt I was connected to with Estevez,” Sheen explained. “I wasn’t ashamed of the name, but if this was gonna be a fresh start across new horizons, I wanted to sound different when spoken of."
Charlie temporarily went back to his birth name for the 2013 film Machete Kills to honor his Hispanic heritage.