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What I mean by this is not the alias they use when they do H-Games. What I
mean is whether they use a stage-name when doing anime works.

It all started from a little question I had in mind, "Is Hanazawa Kana really
Hanazawa Kana?" Usually people in the entertainment industry use a stage-name
to avoid mixing up their personal life and their public life. An example for
this is the actor Hiro Mizushima, who is not really Hiro Mizushima by birth.
His birth name is Saito Tomohiro. Does the same hold true with the seiyuu
profession?

I also noted that Mizuki Nana's birth name is Kondo Nana. But is she just a
rare case or are most seiyuu like that (that is, using a stage name)?


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voice-acting
Do Seiyuu use stage-names for their anime works?


I looked up each of the [listed "major" and "popular" male and female
_seiyuu_](http://www.usagi.org/doi/seiyuu/individual.html) at Hitoshi Doi's
[_Seiyuu_ (voice actor) Database](http://www.usagi.org/doi/seiyuu) (Doi's
database has been collecting _seiyuu_ information [since
1994](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitoshi_Doi) and hit [50,000 entries in
2001](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2001-11-02/seiyuu-database-
surpasses-50-000-entries)).

Although this is not a representative sampling of all _seiyuu_ , out of these
20 individuals recognized as "major" and "popular" by Doi, 4 (or possibly 3)
are using a stage name (if 4, that comes out to 20%):

  * 水樹奈々 (Mizuki Nana), who you mentioned, born as [近藤奈々](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B4%E6%A8%B9%E5%A5%88%E3%80%85) (Kondo Nana)
  * [山口勝平 (Yamaguchi Kappei), born as [山口光雄](http://www.usagi.org/doi/seiyuu/yamaguchi-kappei/) (Yamaguchi Mitsuo)
  * 優希比呂 (Yuuki Hiro), born as [露崎照久](http://www.usagi.org/doi/seiyuu/yuuki-hiro/) (Tsuyusaki Teruhisa), debuted in 1988 under the name 結城比呂 (Yuuki Hiro = same pronunciation but different _kanji_ for the surname), [changed his surname to 優希 in June, 2007](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%84%AA%E5%B8%8C%E6%AF%94%E5%91%82#.E4.BA.BA.E7.89.A9).
  * 堀江由衣 (Horie Yui), born as Horie Yoshiko [according to Hitoshi Doi](http://www.usagi.org/doi/seiyuu/horie-yui/), but he does not know her original _kanji_ nor does the [Japanese Wikipedia page](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A0%80%E6%B1%9F%E7%94%B1%E8%A1%A3) mention a name change

Based on this small sample, 1) _seiyuu_ can choose stage names and change
stage names after debut, but the majority go by their real name, and 2) those
who do adopt a stage name may likely adapt their real name (change only the
surname or given name but not both).

To check for more individual cases, the Japanese Wikipedia page of each
_seiyuu_ lists the real name under 「本名」 ( _honmyou_ = real name) in the
profile box on the right side, if the person has a different real name.

[花澤香菜](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8A%B1%E6%BE%A4%E9%A6%99%E8%8F%9C)
(Hanazawa Kana) is her real name.


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