Sir Elton John has revealed changing his name has caused a “gap” in his life.

In his 20s, Sir Elton legally changed his name to Elton Hercules John after he disliked his “old-fashioned” birth name, Reginald Kenneth Dwight.

Now he has explained why and also revealed how this change caught up with him later in life.

“Reginald is a really old-fashioned name, shortened to Reggie, which I hated. But in America it’s a pretty popular name,” Sir Elton began while chatting to Good Morning America.

“But I just didn’t like it.” As soon as I could, I changed my name. I was very smart, I thought, no one’s really called Elton, so I’ll be Elton and I’ll be the only Elton.

“It was kind of a good decision. I wanted to leave my childhood and this personality behind me, but it caught up with me.

“I realized I was going to put everything into my work, my art, my recording. There was nothing underneath, I was just a void. So I had left little Reggie behind, but little Reggie was still inside me.”

Sir Elton worked in the industry in the 1960s under the name Reggie, but he took the step to stand out from the crowd and distance himself from his childhood.

His new name came from combining the names of his Bluesology bandmate Elton Dean and Long John Baldry, with Hercules probably being a reference to the name of a horse in the British sitcom Steptoe and Son.

Bluesology became Long John Baldry’s opening act in 1966.

In a 1987 interview, Sir Elton previously said the change had given him a whole new personality.

“I became Elton John, it was like a new life,” he said. “I didn’t particularly like being Reg Dwight. There were too many unhappy memories.

“I hated the word Reg anyway.” It was just a terrible name. Once I was Elton it was just great. It was like a new personality.’

Sir Elton has previously spoken about childhood trauma, revealing in his memoirs that his mother hit him with a wire brush while potty training and his father hit him for taking off his school blazer the wrong way, which led to him “acting up.” Eggshells have walked around her.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2021, he said: “The self-hatred, the lack of self-esteem, it all comes from my childhood.”

Sir Elton explained: “All my life, until I got sober, I was afraid to talk to anyone.” They asked me when I went to treatment how I felt and I said: “I don’t know, I don’t feel anything.”

“I sort of unfrozen and discovered that I had feelings, and they went back a long time. And I think that’s something you’ll remember for the rest of your life… I just feel terrible about myself; I feel guilty sometimes.’

This admission came after the Rocket Man hitmaker’s series of health issues.

Due to a severe infection, his vision was limited in one eye, while the other was also “not the best,” making the work challenging for the musician.

Earlier this year, the I’m Still Standing hitmaker darkly commented that “there’s not much of him left.”

“To be honest, there’s not much left of me.” I don’t have tonsils, adenoids or an appendix. “I don’t have a prostate,” he told People Magazine earlier this year.

“I don’t have a right hip, left knee or right knee. In fact, the only thing I have left is my left hip. But I’m still here.’

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