What is Lady Gaga's real name?

The answer is: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta

The woman we know as Lady Gaga emerged from the sticky floors of New York's Lower East Side bars, but Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta grew up in Manhattan's Upper West Side, making her own disco bras and learning how to set a piano on fire (metaphorically, usually).

Her transformation into Lady Gaga wasn't some record label marketing scheme – it was born in the crucible of the city's underground music scene. Music producer Rob Fusari, watching her perform, thought of Queen's "Radio Ga Ga." His phone would autocorrect "Radio" to "Lady," and the name stuck like her early sidewalk posters: cheap glue, expensive dreams.

In the dim light of downtown clubs, where art school dropouts and future superstars rubbed shoulders, she recognized that Lady Gaga had a ring that "Stefani" lacked. It was theatrical, a little absurd, and impossible to forget – just like the artist herself.

Those who knew her then say she'd answer to both names, switching between them like costumes. At home, she was still Stefani, helping her mom with Sunday dinner. But when she strapped on her platform boots, Lady Gaga took over.

The duality served her well. Lady Gaga could wear a dress made of bubbles or arrive at the Grammys in an egg, then sit down at a piano with Tony Bennett and remind everyone why jazz standards never die. One person containing multitudes: pop provocateur, classical pianist, jazz singer, avant-garde performance artist.

Even now, her closest friends and family still call her Stefani. It's a reminder that beneath the artistic persona that has sold millions of records and won an Oscar, there's still that Italian-American girl from New York who just wanted to make music. Lady Gaga might be the name that fills stadiums, but Stefani Germanotta is the one who earned every spotlight.

The duality of her identity mirrors her artistic range. In becoming Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta didn't disappear; she multiplied.