What is Woody Allen's birth name?

Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of Nettie (née Cherry; November 8, 1906 – January 27, 2002), a bookkeeper at her family's delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg (December 25, 1900 – January 8, 2001), a jewelry engraver and waiter. His family was Jewish; his grandparents immigrated from Russia and Austria, and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. His parents were both born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

His childhood was not particularly happy; his parents did not get along, and he had a rocky relationship with his stern, temperamental mother. Allen spoke German quite a bit in his early years. He would later joke that when he was young he was often sent to inter-faith summer camps, where he "was savagely beaten by children of all races and creeds." While attending Hebrew school for eight years, he went to Public School 99 (now the Isaac Asimov School for Science and Literature) and to Midwood High School, where he graduated in 1953. Unlike his comic persona, he was more interested in baseball than school and his strong arms ensured he was first to be picked for a team. He impressed students with his extraordinary talent at card and magic tricks.

For pay, he wrote jokes (or "gags") for agent David O. Alber, who sold them to newspaper columnists. At the age of 17, he legally changed his name to Heywood Allen and later began to call himself Woody Allen.