Can't you use any name you want as long as it isn't used with the intent to deceive? Must you go through the courts legally to do so?Why

Don't celebrities have "stage names" which are different from their given legal names? So your last name is Jerk and you want to run for public office. Why not just call yourself Jerry Winters and let Jerry Jerk be whom you are privately legally? That wouldn't be illegal would it? Just wonderin'!