This is another stage name that's kind of obvious. Nobody's called 'Vin Diesel'. You can probably work out that 'Vin' is short for 'Vincent', and it is, but 'Vincent Diesel' doesn't sound likely either. That's because we're still way off the mark! 'Vincent' is actually the action movie hero's last name; his first name is the much less dramatic 'Mark'.
So where did the name come from? Well, in the days before fame, he put his burly frame to good use as a nightclub bouncer in New York. At the time, bouncers were advised never to give out their real name for their own safety, so he just called himself 'Vin'. The 'Diesel' part arrived when his colleagues nicknamed him 'Diesel' because he had relentless energy, like a diesel engine. Put the two together, and you have a name that became a serious Hollywood box office draw!