Guest HostTours

LISTEN LIVE

Five Country Superstars Who Go By Their Middle Names

Many country music superstars choose their middle names over their given first names. It is hard to imagine country music superstar Sam Smith (Tim McGraw’s given name) and his superstar…

Five Country Superstars Who Go By Their Middle Names
Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Many country music superstars choose their middle names over their given first names. It is hard to imagine country music superstar Sam Smith (Tim McGraw's given name) and his superstar wife, Audrey Faith Perry (Faith Hill). Or how about sold-out stadium shows from a guy named Troyal (Garth Brooks)? And instead of two Lukes (Bryan and Combs), there would be two Thomas' (Rhett and Bryan).

Many celebrities change their name to fit who they have become, but in country music, the go-to name change for a superstar is to simply go with your middle name.

We take a look at five country superstars that go by their given middle names.

Kenneth Eric Church

Eric Church

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Can you image Kenny Church? Eric, born in n Granite Falls, North Carolina, was named after his father, Ken. Church worked with his dad at Clayton Marcus, a furniture upholstery company where his father was president.

Thomas Luther Bryan

Luke Bryan

Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Luke was named after his father, Tommy, who was a peanut farmer in Leesburg, Georgia.

Troyal Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks

Chris Weeks/Liaison

Garth was named for his father, Troyal Raymond Brooks Jr. He is the elder Troyal's youngest child. His mother, Colleen McElroy Carroll (who passed away in 1999), was a 1950s-era country singer who recorded on Capitol Records, the same label that Garth recorded on.

Frederick Dierks Bentley

Dierks Bentley

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Dierks has used his middle name publically since his music career began. The name Dierks is his maternal great-grandmother's surname. His parents' names are Leon Fife Bentley (who passed away in 2012) and Catherine Childs.

Samuel Timothy Smith

Tim McGraw

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Tim McGraw was not born as a McGraw, and Timothy was his middle name. He changed his last name at age 11 when he learned the identity of his real father, major league baseball pitcher "Tug" McGraw, who passed away in 2004.

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.