An interesting thing about Frank Sinatra, the singer, is that he had the same name his whole life.

He was very ambitious, and a couple of different times when he was starting out, people told him he's never get far unless he changed his name to something that didn't sound Italian.

He said yes to that at least once. But his forceful mother said no, forcefully, and Sinatra never changed his name.

His mother said he could call himself either Sinatra or O'Brien. He stuck with the name he had, Sinatra.

O'Brien was not her name. Her name before she married was Garavante. O'Brien was the name her husband, Marty Sinatra, used to box under. He boxed professionally as Marty O'Brien and went by Marty Sinatra in private life because Italians weren't allowed in the gyms.

When they were dating, Dolly Garavante dressed as a man to see Marty fight, because women weren't allowed at fights.

The people who told Frank Sinatra that he had to have a name that didn't sound Italian to succeed (Satin was one suggestion) were incorrect.

--information from "His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra"