Carmen Electra is a household name — and now it’s officially her legal moniker.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge this week granted the actor’s request to legally change her name from her birth name, Tara Leigh Patrick, to her stage name.
Electra has used her famous stage name since she stepped into the spotlight in her breakthrough role as Lani McKenzie in “Baywatch.”
On Jan. 9, the TV personality filed a petition to legally change her name to Carmen Electra, according to documents obtained by TODAY.com.
Carmen Electra at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards on Dec. 6, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. (Frazer Harrison / WireImage)
How Carmen Electra got her name
Electra began as a singer and dancer, auditioning for an all-girl group that Prince was creating in the early ’90s, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She credits her stage name to the late pop icon, recalling how the artist told her, “You’re not a Tara. You’re not Tara. You’re Carmen.”
While she didn’t make the group, Electra said that he took her under his wing and made her one of his protégés.
When the “Purple Rain” star died in 2016, the “Scary Movie” actor told the magazine, “He gave me my name, he believed in me, and he has inspired an entire generation. I will always love him.”
As for Electra, she shared in a 2014 interview with “The Yo Show” that after she auditioned for the group, “(Prince) said, ‘You look like Electra. That should be your name.’”
“At first I thought it sounded kinda like a superhero type of name, which actually it is,” she said, adding that at first she “was hesitant” about it. “But it just sorta grew on me and that’s it. I’m Electra now.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
