10 Fascinating Stories Behind Rock Music Star Stage Names
5. Hear Hear - Bono
Paul David Hewson is the name of a man who sells sofas for a living and likes to "treat himself" on the weekends to two bottles of beer in one evening.
It is not the name of one of the most famous men on the planet, and yet, it is.
This is the birth name of U2 lead singer Bono, who was born in Dublin in 1960. As a young man, he spent time in a gang who liked to call themselves "Lypton Village", which is maybe the worst gang name in history.
Nicknames were commonplace in the Village and the young Hewson ended up with several, including "Bono Vox of O'Connell Street", which alluded to a shop that sold hearing aids in Dublin city centre.
Hewson didn't like the nickname at first, but changed his tune when he found out that "bonavox" was Latin for "good voice". This got shortened to just Bono when he was about 14 or 15, and he never looked back.
Thank God some of his other nicknames didn't stick, as one of them was "Steinhegvanhuysenolegbangbangbang".
There's no way he was getting famous with that.