What was Marilyn Monroe’s real name?

The name on Marilyn Monroe’s birth certificate is Norma Jeane Mortenson. Mortenson was the surname of her mother’s second husband, and Norma was chosen because of her mother’s appreciation for actress Norma Talmadge. During her early life Marilyn Monroe was often known as Norma Jeane Baker, using the surname of her mother’s first husband. (Neither Mortenson nor Baker was her biological father.) Marilyn Monroe adopted that name professionally in 1946, shortly after she signed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. She changed it legally in 1956.