Why Dakota Fanning Doesn't Use Her Real First Name

Through her acting career, Dakota Fanning has blossomed from a prolific child star into one of Hollywood's most beloved darlings. The actor has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame since she starred as Lucy in 2001's "I Am Sam" at age 7. As Dakota's star brightened on the big screen, she landed roles in critically acclaimed films such as "Brimstone" and "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood." In a chat with Fox News, Dakota shared how she managed to avoid the tragic fates of many child stars and maintain a steady and successful career for over 20 years.

"For me, I think I just have always maintained my very pure love for what I do. When you start out so young, it's really like make-believe, and you're using your imagination, and it's a heightened version of playing at home," she told Fox. "And so I think I always have approached it that way, that it's supposed to be fun and it's supposed to be creative, and it's supposed to excite you."

Thanks to her talent and dedication to her craft, Dakota has become one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood, next to her sister Elle Fanning, who also pursued a career in acting. Today, many are familiar with the Fanning sisters, but did you know that their first names aren't actually Dakota and Elle? Here's the truth about the siblings' birth names and why Dakota chose to go by her second name when choosing her showbiz moniker.

While plenty of celebrities choose to be creative with their stage names (Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, for example), others go with nicknames only slightly different from the ones on their birth certificates. For example, Bruce Willis was born Walter Bruce Willis, and Brad Pitt is really named William Bradley Pitt. Similarly, siblings Dakota and Elle Fanning are yet another pair of actors who refused to go by their first real names — but not for reasons you may think. Per Vogue, Dakota was born Hannah Dakota Fanning, while sister Elle was born Mary Elle Fanning.

As explained by Elle to Glamour in 2016, she and Dakota have always gone by their second names even before they started acting and reached superstardom. "I just never went by Mary, like ever. My mom goes by her middle name, and my sister goes by her middle name," Elle told the publication. "Her first name is Hannah. It's possibly a Southern thing, I don't know. But since my mom goes by her middle name, we go by our middle names too." She recalled her discomfort when people called her by her first name as a child. "It was awkward in school when they were calling roll call because they'd go, 'Mary? Mary?' Kids would be like, 'There's no Mary here.' I'd awkwardly raise my hand, like, 'Uh, it's me.'"

While they have spent much of their lives in L.A., sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning actually hail from the South and were born in small-town Georgia to a Southern Baptist family. Despite essentially growing up in Hollywood, their southern heritage and values remained a key part of their lives, with Dakota crediting their conservative upbringing for her wholesome, "good girl" image. "I was raised by very traditional Southern parents with Southern manners," she told Town & Country in 2016. "You don't air your dirty laundry to people that aren't your family or your friends. Why would I ever want to portray myself as anything other than together?"

According to Dakota, growing up in a traditional and religious household was a major influence on her personal life. However, she has been able to separate her characters' choices from her own. "[I've spent] my entire life as a Christian person, and ... when I'm making choices in movies that I choose to do, you're playing a character a lot of times," she said during a panel discussion at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in 2009. "Sometimes you can't let your personal beliefs affect that and you have to do what you're driven as an actress to do. But I definitely try to keep my faith and my religion and apply that to my personal life and be the best Dakota that I can be."