SM Artists Have A Story Behind The Names They Finally Use To Debut. It turned out that there were some who rejected Lee Soo Man's stage name.
SM Entertainment is known for being a visual and talent powerhouse, and many of them also have really cool stage names. Some of them have quite a story behind the names they ended up using to debut. It turned out that there were some SM artists who rejected Lee Soo Man's stage name.
First is Tony Ahn H.O.T. Lee Soo Man originally suggested the name "Pickle", because he believed it matched Tony's "fresh" image very well. The name eventually fell into disuse and he debuted under the name "Tony" which is his English name.
Super Junior's leader Leeteuk has several recommendations for stage names. The first is "Kangsu", which means "deposition." This name became a strong candidate because Lee Soo Man intended for Leeteuk to bring "rain to the music industry."
The second is "Shin-i" which means sent by God. And the third and final one, which he finally chose, was "Leeteuk", which means "special child." Besides Leeteuk, Shindong and Kyuhyun also failed to use the stage name given by Lee Soo Man.
The first stage name suggestion for Shindong came from his birth name, Shin Donghee. His name is "Woo-dong" because it also fits his image. The second suggested stage name given by Lee Soo Man was "Dong-chun", the name of the Korean circus group that was active at the time, and the name was taken into consideration because Lee Soo Man believed in Shindong's extraordinary talent.
The last name that was submitted was "Shin-don", which was eventually rejected because an MBC drama of the same name was being broadcast at the time. "Shin-don" ended up being changed to "Shindong" and he actually made the name his.
Kyuhyun was originally given the name "Gwi-hyun", because Lee Soo Man believed that the name "Kyuhyun" was difficult to pronounce. The name also means "precious", and he was sure it would suit Kyuhyun a lot.
Super Junior's manager, however, found out about it, and immediately opposed the name. Kyuhyun ended up debuting under his own birth name instead.
Lastly, EXO's youngest member Sehun should debut under the name "Se-eul". But he finally debuted with his birth name.
(wk / chus)
