[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” module_alignment=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”42px” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”336px” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Research for my February 2026 book Greta Garbo and the Rise of the Modern Woman revealed some amazing facts. Here is one.<\/p>\n
How did Greta Gustafson become Greta Garbo?<\/span> Why change?<\/span> Choosing a name that is culturally unique also implies that you believe you can deliver a performance worthy of being marked as unique. As we shall see, Garbo believed.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In Sweden the female actor most like Greta Garbo, who wasn\u2019t Garbo, was Tora Teje. She had created her own name instead of using her birth name, Tora Johansson. Teje was a dozen years older than Garbo and came from the same working class S\u00f6der neighborhood. She had precociously enrolled at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School (Dramaten) at fifteen by lying about her age. She became the finest character actor of her generation. Garbo was a great fan.[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/scottreisfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Tora-Teje.jpeg” title_text=”Tora Teje” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”100px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/scottreisfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mimi-Pollak.jpg” title_text=”Mimi Pollak” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Stories told by others<\/span> Several people offered up their versions of how it transpired.<\/p>\n Arthur Nord\u00e9n would say that it flowed from a discussion he had with Stiller. According to him Stiller wanted her to have a more international name. He responded by suggesting G\u00e1bor, and the name evolved from there to Garbo.<\/p>\n Nord\u00e9n had co-written some earlier Stiller screenplays. By G\u00f6sta Berling their partnership was three years in the past. It is unclear why Stiller would have discussed this with him.<\/p>\n Mimi Pollak, who was a student in her class at Dramaten, would also tell her version. According to Pollak the two of them were walking to the office where the name change would be initiated, pondering alternatives. The idea that Garbo was committed to changing her name and had arranged for her mother to be present to sign the petition as she was still minor, while not yet knowing what that name would be seems unlikely. A further point is that the other witness on the name change petition is that of a different Dramaten student, Mona Martenson, not Pollak.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n What the record shows<\/span> Gustaf Molander was the director of the Dramaten school. He was the man who admitted Garbo and oversaw her education. Elements of the theatre part of his career reside in the Music and Theatre Library. He also had a significant film career which is chronicled in the Swedish film archive.<\/p>\n He kept a notebook each year to gather together information on the schoolteachers and students. In the notebook for the school year 1922\/23, Garbo\u2019s first year, on the page where he first lists out the new students, she listed as Greta Garbo [Gustafson]. Garbo is the name she began using at the very beginning of her theatre career.<\/p>\n Interestingly, on later pages where Molander is assigning students to roles he reverses the order. She is listed as Greta Gustafson [Garbo]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/scottreisfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Gustaf-Molanders-list-of-students-year-one.jpg” title_text=”Gustaf Molanders list of students year one” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/scottreisfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Gustaf-Molanders-list-of-students-year-two.jpg” title_text=”Gustaf Molanders list of students year two” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]When Molander starts his notebook for the 1923\/24 school year, she is Greta Garbo. The school year started in September; Garbo has already completed the first production window for G\u00f6sta Berling. Stiller must wait for snow to finish the film. This is months before her official name change.[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,1_3,1_3″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/scottreisfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/230823-RHC-datebook-scaled.jpg” alt=”A close up of a single entry from the datebook of Ragnar Hylt\u00e9n-Cavillius in which he notes that Greta Gustafson %91Garbo%93 is %22unimaginably pretty.%22″ title_text=”230823 RHC datebook” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]The Swedish Film Institute has the 1923 datebook of Ragnar Hylt\u00e9n-Cavillius, who co-wrote the script for G\u00f6sta Berling. It is interesting how Hylt\u00e9n-Cavillius records Garbo. For August 6, 1923 the day that the Christmas dinner scene was filmed he would note, \u201cGreta Gustavsson unimaginably pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n Six weeks later, on September 18, her birthday, when he recorded her name in his datebook, it is as Greta Garbo.[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/scottreisfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Sep-18-datebook-entry-Ragnar-Hyten-Callivius–scaled.jpg” alt=”Ragnar Hylt\u00e9n-Cavillius note Greta Garbo’s birthday using the Garbo name in his September 1923 datebook.” title_text=”Sep 18 datebook entry Ragnar Hyten-Callivius” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The legal name change<\/span> Greta Garbo named herself.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Gustafson or Gustafsson?<\/span> Swedish last names for the working-class were created at the turn of the century. Before that, you were just named after your father. Greta would have been Greta Karlsdotter. If she was a boy, it would have been Greta Karlsson, with the double letter \u2018s.\u2019 More modern thinking Swedes dropped one letter \u2018s.\u2019 That wasn\u2019t recognized by the bureaucracy of that time. Today both versions of Swedish last names co-exist.<\/p>\n On Garbo\u2019s petition for her name change the bureaucrat writes her name as Greta Gustafsson. Below that, she confidently signs her old name with a single \u2018s,\u2019 Greta Gustafson. Her mother Anna also signs her name with a single \u2018s.\u2019<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/scottreisfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Name_Petition.jpg” alt=”The November 9 1923 petition Garbo filed to change her name. The Swedish bureaucrat wrote her original family name with a double letter s, while Garbo and her mother signed the single letter s version that the family used.” title_text=”Name_Petition” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How Greta Garbo Got Her NameResearch for my February 2026 book Greta Garbo and the Rise of the Modern Woman revealed some amazing facts. Here is one. How did Greta Gustafson become Greta Garbo?Several people have offered up stories about her change from the most ordinary of Swedish family names to the distinctive Garbo. Now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[15,13,23],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garbo","tag-garbo","tag-greta-garbo","tag-hollywood"],"yoast_head":"\n
Several people have offered up stories about her change from the most ordinary of Swedish family names to the distinctive Garbo. Now, the true story of the Garbo name is revealed.<\/p>\n
Changing one\u2019s name to a stage name has a long tradition. It can add distinctiveness, or flair. The Gustafson name would not set her apart. Sometimes one\u2019s birth name is too distinct. Jewish performers in America often anglicized their names. So Hedwig Kiesler became Hedy Lamarr.<\/p>\n
Garbo never discussed where the Garbo name came from. To the public it just appeared with the release of G\u00f6sta Berling, the 1924 Mauritz Stiller film that made her a star.<\/p>\n
For decades key documents that show the truth lay undiscovered in a Swedish archive. The Music and Theatre Library in Stockholm is often overlooked by film researchers. Back in the 1920s there wasn\u2019t much of a line between film and theatre. People went back and forth on different projects. There I found two documents that show Garbo was Garbo much earlier than commonly thought.<\/p>\n
Why did Garbo wait until November 9 to apply for a legal name change to Greta Garbo? Prior to G\u00f6sta Berling there was no need to formally change her name. She was just a student. Even though she was using Garbo, film publicity continued to use Gustafson. She was only mentioned in a few articles during production, it was as Greta Gustafson. By changing her name to Garbo before the film was released, now she was referred to as Greta Garbo in all the publicity.<\/p>\n
People have written Garbo\u2019s birth name as either \u2018Gustafson\u2019 or \u2018Gustafsson.\u2019 The answer is revealed in her petition.<\/p>\n