Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: The Full Names of 10 Mononymous People
by Stacy Conradt - December 3, 2008 - 3:34 PM

q10

Everyone knows it’s Beyonce Knowles and Madonna Ciccone, but do you know Bono’s last name? OK, maybe you do, but I totally didn’t. I didn’t even know Bono’s first name. But now I do, and here’s a list of nine others. I have to say I’m inspired: I might think about just going by Stacy… which, come to think of it, isn’t a very cool one-name name. Thanks, mom.

1. Bono – Paul David Hewson. One of his friends nicknamed him Bono in the 70s. According to the book Bono on Bono, his friend named him after a hearing aid shop they went by all of the time, because Bono sang so loud it was like he was trying to make deaf people hear him.

twiggy2. Twiggy – Lesley Hornby. Twiggy was her childhood nickname, and her agent suggested that she take that as her modeling name. Since her marriage, she goes by Twiggy Lawson.
3. Cher – Cherilyn Sarkisian. I understand why she goes by Cher; Cherilyn Sarkisian is kind of a mouthful.
4. Moby – Richard Melville Hall. I think this is somewhat well-known, but he says his middle name and his nickname are because Herman Melville is his great-great-great-granduncle.
5. Slash – Saul Hudson. He’s another one who carried the nickname over from his childhood; a family friend named him Slash because he was always running around in a hurry. Another interesting fact about Slash: his mom was a costume designer for David Bowie.
6. Sting – Gordon Sumner. He was playing with his band (not the Police) one evening and wore a snazzy yellow and black striped sweater. The bandleader made fun of him, saying it made him look like a bee. Thus, Sting.
7. Rihanna – Robyn Rihanna Fenty. I don’t have much to say about her, since she just swapped her names and dropped the surname. Rihanna sounds a lot edgier than Robyn, though, I’ll give you that.
8. Fabio – Fabio Lanzoni. That’s all I care to say about Fabio.
9. Prince – Prince Rogers Nelson. When your parents give you a name like Prince, you pretty much have to do something interesting with your life, I’m pretty sure.
10. Pelé – Edison (Edson) Arantes do Nascimento. This one was an accident – Pelé pronounced the name of his favorite soccer player wrong – “Pilé” instead of “Bilé.” A classmate made fun of him by referring to him as the mispronounciation, and Pelé actually punched the guy for mocking him and got suspended from school. But the name stuck anyway.

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (15)

  1. What about Marvin Lee Aday who is better known as Meatloaf.

    posted by Bill on 12-3-2008 at 4:17 pm

  2. It’s not really a person with only one name, but i found this interesting….The shock-rock artist G.G Allin was born Jesus Christ Allin. Yes…that is correct, his legal name was Jesus Christ. he got the nickname “GG” becuase his older brother couldnt pronounce “Jesus.” He later got his name legally changed to Kevin Michael Allin.

    But why was he named Jesus Christ, you may ask? Well, he got the name because his father, Merle Allin Sr., said that Jesus Christ Himself visited him and told him that his newborn son was going to be a great man in the vein of the Messiah….looks like he couldnt have been more wrong about that one!!!

    posted by andy on 12-3-2008 at 4:36 pm

  3. Andy,
    You know way too much about GG Allin. Good for you!

    posted by Jeremy on 12-3-2008 at 4:41 pm

  4. Just a note on Rihanna… thats probably the name she uses in her everyday life. Here in Barbados (where she hails from) familys have a tendency to name in this order –> First name for an old family name (great grandparent, etc). Middle name for the name they want to call the child and the Last name is obviously the surname/family name.
    nearly everyone I know down here is named that way.

    posted by Evangeline on 12-3-2008 at 5:36 pm

  5. Stacy, I know you don’t care to comment about Fabio, but I happen to think that might be a pretty funny post. You could do a Top 10 on him…or maybe someone else wants to take on him and his mane.

    Perhaps a Valentine’s Day post?

    posted by kate on 12-3-2008 at 6:00 pm

  6. I think Fabio looks silly, but he seems like a nice enough guy. considering the fact that he makes his living off of his looks, I think it’s pretty cool that he didn’t throw a fit when that bird flew into his face on that roller coaster. Anyway, I read an interview with him one time and he seemed like a decent guy (despite being a bit cocky).

    posted by m on 12-3-2008 at 6:56 pm

  7. On the Prince subject, there’s also Prince Fielder, son of Cecil Fielder, who actually went on to out do his own father in baseball.

    So you can’t be too far off on the naming your son Prince psychology.

    I honestly don’t care about baseball, I just went to elementary school with Prince. :)

    posted by Casey on 12-3-2008 at 9:38 pm

  8. Another reason why Rhianna probably doesn’t go by Robyn is because there was a singer in the 90′s by that name. She had a couple of forgettable hits.

    posted by RA on 12-4-2008 at 12:15 am

  9. My first name is Stacy too, and I want to be loyal and say that Stacy is a great Mononymous name, but as you can see I feel I have to put an adjective behind my name to make it interesting. So I feel you Stacy, except I have my dad to thank.

    posted by Stacy the Amazing on 12-4-2008 at 10:43 am

  10. Odetta passed away a couple of days ago… full name Odetta Holmes.

    Here’s a link for you young’uns:
    http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odetta

    posted by Jason! on 12-4-2008 at 11:04 am

  11. I always wonder if people like Bono and Sting actually go by those names with their wives and other close people. Cuz that’s kinda weird.

    posted by Shasta on 12-4-2008 at 1:16 pm

  12. RA- Are you crazy?! Robyn is still around and recently put out an amazing album. Critics loved it, and from what I can tell, so did everyone else.
    You should seriously listen to it.

    Also, “Show Me Love” is FAR from forgettable!

    posted by bleen on 12-4-2008 at 2:35 pm

  13. Two things:
    !) Fabio served in the Army Airborne
    @) As I never met my father, and do not have his surname, I have thought of dropping my current last name and use my first – Augustus. I feel it stands well on it’s own.

    posted by gus on 12-4-2008 at 4:17 pm

  14. I enjoyed this so much I grabbed the domain name and intend to expand the list.
    I might even take on the mononymous of Mononymous!

    posted by Paul Brin on 1-26-2010 at 4:43 am

  15. This has been fun!
    Regarding Meat Loaf. that’s a stage name and doesn’t meet the requirements of the definition of a mononym, or “single name”.

    posted by Paul Brin on 1-26-2010 at 4:13 pm

Comment

commenting policy