What was David Bowie's birth name?

David Bowie’s birth name was David Robert Jones.

He was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London, and used the name David Jones during his early musical career. He adopted the stage surname Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees, who was already becoming well known in Britain and the United States.

The new surname came from the Bowie knife, associated with the 19th-century American frontiersman James Bowie. Although Bowie later became famous for constantly changing his musical personas—including Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke and Halloween Jack—his legal name remained David Robert Jones.

A common mix-up is “David John Jones,” which resembles the correct name but reverses the middle names. Another unrelated musician, Davy Jones, helped motivate Bowie’s decision to perform under a different surname.