WHAT NEXT, RICARDO?

SHAKESPEARE once noted, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Not in Hollywood, folks. Rumor has it that Katie Holmes has snipped the cutesy off her moniker and now prefers to simply go by the more mature and monosyllabic “Kate.”

If so, she’s certainly not the first star to nix a nickname. “Blossom” star Joey Lawrence is all grown up and known alternatively as Joe and Joseph. James Caan once went by Jimmy. Lil’ Bow Wow dropped the “Lil’ ” when he hit puberty, and Sean Combs, the man of a thousand pseudonyms, seems to have settled on his birth name – though a recent news report said he was switching to “Sean John.”

Perhaps most famously, Ricky Schroder – who first bounded into our hearts as a towheaded millionaire on TV’s “Silver Spoons” – made a fuss about being called Rick when he landed on “NYPD Blue” in the late ’90s.

But recently, Schroder changed his mind once again. He currently answers to Ricky.

“It’s my quest for the fountain of youth. Now that I am older, I want to be younger,” jokes Schroder, 37, who admits that the more adult version of his name never suited him. “My family and friends have always called me Ricky, and that’s what feels comfortable to me.”

On the flip-side, actor Thomas Jane mysteriously became the more Hemingway-condoned “Tom” in 2004 when he starred in the vigilante flick “The Punisher.” It made sense to me. Thomas Jane sounded like the name of a 19th century Romantic poet who sedated bad guys with never-ending stanzas about trilling wrens and pantaloons.

Then there are the multiple-identity guys. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson costarred in “Be Cool” in 2005 and was credited as “The Rock.” A call to his publicity company revealed that mail should be addressed to Dwayne Johnson. Imagine the thrill of waking up each morning and pondering, “Who should I be today? Dwayne or a hunk of granite?”

Likewise, rapper-actor-fashion designer LL Cool J sometimes bills himself as James Todd Smith.

“It’s just that I want people to know how serious I am,” he once said about dropping his hip-hop handle when he acts in films. Seriously, LL, the name James Todd Smith will never resonate with me.

In Hollywood, reinventing an image comes with the territory. But most career managers agree that a new autograph spells trouble.

“Would you change Diet Coke to Diet Coca-Cola? Even subtle changes can confuse people,” says David Lust, co-owner of Patricola/Lust Public Relations, which represents Joaquin Phoenix and Paula Abdul.

“My advice is pick a name and stick with it.”

Katie? Kate? Katherine? Did you hear that?

monica.corcoran@latimes.com