Adult

What’s in a name? Porn star edition

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Adult performer Ava Devine.
Photo: Allison Duck

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Shakespeare makes me wonder if that which we call a porn star by any other name would sound as sexy? Porn star names may make us laugh or roll our eyes, but in a business dominated by domain names, a good name really matters. Here are the back stories behind a few names in the adult industry, as discovered at this week's Adult Entertainment Expo.

Ava Devine: "I love the name Ava. I wanted to shoot my first porno and this guy told me I had to come up with a stage name, so I chose Divine as in Divine Brown and Divine the drag queen. And then I had to switch it from an I to an E because everybody had bought my domain names."

Kortney Kane: "When I got into the business, my agent named me. She came up with it and I just went with it. I think it might have had something to do with the Kardashian popularity and that’s why we went with the KK, but a lot of girls in the business have similar names like JJs, KKs and LLs. It just kind of flows."

Carmyell: "I chose it because my complexion was caramel-colored, but I wanted to spell it differently than everybody else spells theirs, so I decided to put the Y in the middle of it."

Tommy Gunn: " I chose that in 1991. I started to work out and my arms got bigger, and in the bodybuilding world, those are called guns. A friend of mine said, ‘Look at these guns. You should call yourself Tommy Gunn.’ I got into dancing, male revues and I thought that was a great name so I chose that name and just continued on with it in the adult film industry."

Julie Ca$h: "I used to go by Julie Stylez and then my domain got bought. Everybody always told me my ass was nothing but cash so I went with Julie Ca$h."

Adult performer Julie Ca$h.

Kiara Mia: "Have you seen Addams Family? The husband’s name is Gomez and he gets his wife’s arm and he kisses it from hand to shoulder and he says ‘Cara Mia.’ Ever since I saw that I thought how much I would love for somebody to kiss my arm and say that. So when I came into this industry they asked me for a sexy name so I picked Kiara Mia."

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