"Anyone with a distinctive name who achieves a certain level can have this happen. Today, it is Bono, Aretha and Elvis. Elvis Costello is stuck with using his full name."
Good points. Also Oprah and Prince, not to mention all the rap and hip-hop performers who go by a made-up stage name of one or more words rather than their real name. Race and gender have nothing to do with it.
Carson, Letterman, Leno, Ruth, Gehrig, Koufax, Reagan, Obama, Melville, Twain, Poe, Vonnegut, Patton, Sherman, Rommel, Grant, Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Dracula
Just off the top of my head