Dido’s Take on Her Two Unusual First Names

You may not be surprised to learn that UK-based singer Dido wasn’t born Dido. After all, Bono wasn’t born Bono. Moby wasn’t born Moby. Plenty of entertainers have stage names, right?

But Dido’s name isn’t a stage name. She was actually called Dido throughout childhood. And she wasn’t too happy about it. “I thought it was cruel to call me Dido and then expect me to just deal with it,” she told The Guardian back in 2001.

According to Dido’s birth certificate, her real first name is Florian–a name she also dislikes. “Florian is a German man’s name. That’s just mean.”

How did Dido feel about growing up with two first names?

To be called one thing and christened another is actually very confusing and annoying. It’s one of the most irritating things that my parents did to me. I’m still irritated by it.

As an adult, she put an end to the confusion by making Dido her legal first name.

Source: How Dido did it