Bono
Born: Paul David Hewson
Supposedly named after a Dublin hearing-aid shop called Bono Vox -- Latin for "good voice." His U2 bandmate the Edge got his own nickname from either his sharp facial features or his fearlessness of heights, depending on which version you believe.

Snoop Dogg
Born: Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr.
Snoop Dogg was nicknamed "Snoopy" by his mom for his love of the 'Peanuts' comic strip. If the original Snoopy was, in fact, a little bit gangsta, 'Doggystyle,' we presume, was not quite what Charles Schulz had in mind.

Marilyn Manson
Born: Brian Hugh Warner
Marilyn Manson combined Marilyn Monroe with Charles Manson, of course. His bandmate Twiggy Ramirez (Jeordie White) combined the names of the slender '60s fashion icon and the serial killer Richard Ramirez. Most of the various band members have taken similarly titillating monikers – Daisy Berkowitz, Madonna Wayne Gacy, Gidget Gein...

Tina Turner
Born: Annie Mae Bullock
Tina Turner got the last name, of course, by marrying her bandleader, Ike Turner. But he also changed the soul queen's given name as well, appropriately yet obliquely inspired by his fandom of comic-book wildwoman Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

Billy Idol
Born: William Michael Albert Broad
A teacher once marked a report card for young Bill with the comment, "William is idle." After his career went multiplatinum in the 1980s, this textbook bad boy fell off the map, going 12 album-less years before a 2005 comeback. Once again, Billy was, in fact, idle.

Elton John
Born: Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Sir Reg's early band was Bluesology, featuring saxophonist Elton Dean and frontman Long John Baldry. In 1972, he legally changed his name to Elton Hercules John, despite never having shared a band with any Hercules.

Macy Gray
Born: Natalie Renee McIntyre
There's Macy Gray, and then there's Macy Gray the neo-soul singer. The latter pinched her stage name wholesale from a man who lived in her Canton, Ohio, neighborhood. No word on whether Mr. Gray ever mistakenly received any of his namesake neighbor's royalty checks in the mail.

Sting
Born: Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner
Playing in a jazz band, the young Gordo once wore a black-and-yellow striped shirt that made him look like a bumblebee. "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting," he once joked, after being addressed by his given name. "Who is this Gordon character?"

Moby
Born: Richard Melville Hall
Childhood nickname bestowed by his parents; Richie's great-great grand-uncle was 'Moby-Dick' author Herman Melville. Sadly, this connection to the great whale tale had nothing to do with Moby's brief stint in the band Flipper.

Iggy Pop
Born: James Newell Osterberg Jr.
His first high school band was called the Iguanas, earning Iggy Pop another colorful nickname – the Rock Iguana. Unhappily credited as Iggy Stooge on the Stooges' first few records.

Dusty Springfield
Born: Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien
Let's say you start a group with your brother called the Springfields, he adopts the moniker Tom Springfield -- and you're Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien. Suffice to say it didn't take a lot of arm-twisting for Dusty -- a childhood nickname -- to change her surname as well.

Bo Diddley
Born: Ellas Otha Bates
Bo Diddley might've swiped his lyrical stage name from a variety of sources. A diddley bow is a homemade, one-stringed instrument often used by sharecroppers. Maybe more to the point for this master of the good-natured put-down is the old-timey insult: "That ain't bo diddley."

Freddie Mercury
Born: Farrokh Bulsara
Born in Zanzibar to a Zoroastrian family of Indian descent, the man who would be Queen began calling himself Freddie while at boarding school near Bombay, where he started a band called the Hectics.

Johnny Rotten
Born: John Joseph Lydon
The head Sex Pistol is said to have earned his nickname through the dubious distinction of his prematurely decaying teeth. Rotten's nickname for his pal John Simon Ritchie was dentally inspired, too -- "Sid Vicious" was borrowed from a particularly nippy pet hamster.

Nico
Born: Christa Paffgen
When she was a teenage model in Europe, the German-born singer was redubbed by fashion photographer Herbert Tobias. He must have been quite taken by her beauty, as he was inspired to give her the name of his friend (and rumored ex-lover), filmmaker Nico Papatakis.

Flea
Born: Michael Peter Balzary
Like Sting, another product of the Flying Pest school of rock nicknames. The Red Hot Chili Pepper's stage name was bestowed for his high-strung nature by high school buddy Anthony Kiedis on a ski trip.

Sun Ra
Born: Herman Poole Blount
The eccentric jazzman, who claimed he was from Saturn, named himself after the ancient Egyptian sun god. Also answered, somewhat less exotically, to the childhood nickname Sonny.

Elvis Costello
Born: Declan Patrick McManus
Originally performed as D.P. Costello, using his great-grandmother's surname (not inspired by the American comedian Lou Costello). Costello later took his manager's advice and adopted the first name Elvis. Further confusing the matter, he legally added Aloysius to his given name in the '80s.

Howlin' Wolf
Born: Chester Arthur Burnett
Named for the 21st president, enormous young Chester was called "Bull Cow" before he became Howlin' Wolf, which came from a grandfather who liked to scare the boy with tales of wolves who would come after him if he misbehaved.

Cat Power
Born: Charlyn Marie Marshall
Chan Marshall didn't adopt her Cat Power alter ego in solidarity with feline empowerment. The indie vocalist once spotted the phrase "Cat Diesel Power" on a trucker hat advertising Caterpillar heavy machinery.

Jello Biafra
Born: Eric Reed Boucher
The wickedly ironic Dead Kennedys founder combined the name of the jiggly, nutrition-free instant food with the name of the African secessionist state that suffered mass starvation in the late 1960s.

Alice Cooper
Born: Vincent Furnier
Original band the Spiders switched their name to Alice Cooper, conjured, according to the record company, through a Ouija board encounter with a medieval witch of the same name. In 1974, Furnier legally adopted the name, keeping it for his solo career.

Engelbert Humperdinck
Born: Arnold George Dorsey
The crooner of 'Release Me' and 'After the Lovin'' swiped his stage name from the 19th-century German composer of the opera 'Hansel and Gretel,' which was described by the original Engelbert as "a fairy opera."

Meat Loaf
Born: Marvin Lee Aday
The 'Bat Out of Hell' blockbuster's first band was called Meat Loaf Soul; he debuted, oddly, with Motown, as half of a duet called Stoney and Meat Loaf. Recently changed his given first name, which no one knew anyway, to Michael.

Ol' Dirty Bastard
Born: Russell Tyrone Jones
Wu-Tang Clan founding member nicknamed after a kung-fu film known as 'Ol' Dirty & the Bastard'; Jones's unique flow struck his bandmates as having "no father." And while a few people have one good alter ego, ODB rocked about 15 or so great ones, including Dirt McGirt, Peanut the Kidnapper, Freeloading Rusty and Big Baby Jesus.