Artist/Name/Legal Name

Legal Name of a Person

A Legal Name is the name of a person as used in official dealings, especially with governments. Many musicians are known by an alias, and we refer to that as the PerformanceName.

For MusicBrainz purposes, if an artist works under their PerformanceName, the Legal Name is primarily used to hold PerformanceNameRelationshipType to PerformanceNames, and biographical details such as personal relationships.

The birth certificate is the usual place you will find a legal name. However, legal names can be changed at any time (eg by marriage, deed poll etc).

Style

• SameArtistWithDifferentNames contains details about how and when to use both PerformanceNames and LegalNames.
• Note that only persons have LegalNames, not bands.

Examples

• Declan Patrick MacManus is the Legal Name of Elvis Costello. Paul David Hewson is the Legal Name of Bono.

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