Bono's Real Name: Paul David Hewson

Quick answer: Bono's documented birth name is Paul David Hewson. Biography.com uses that form and dates his birth to May 10, 1960, in Dublin, Ireland. Britannica independently uses "byname of Paul David Hewson" and the same date and place (Biography; Britannica).

Real name and early life

He is known professionally as Bono. Both sources agree on Paul David Hewson, May 10, 1960, in Dublin, and that he was the son of a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother who died when he was 14. Biography.com says he joined U2 in October 1976, while still in high school, and was dubbed "Bono Vox" (good voice). Britannica dates the band's formation in Dublin to 1977, with school friends David Evans (later "the Edge"), Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton. This page records both years rather than choosing one.

Career highlights

Biography.com, which also identifies his father as a postal worker, says U2's sixth album, The Joshua Tree, made them international stars, and that Bono was named a Time Person of the Year in 2005 and was made an honorary knight by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007. Biography.com describes DATA, whose name stands for Debt AIDS Trade Africa, as dedicated to fighting AIDS and ending poverty in Africa, and One as a campaign started in 2004. Britannica independently calls The Joshua Tree (1987) the band's biggest-selling and most influential recording, ranked 26th on a 2003 Rolling Stone list of 500 albums, and lists a breakthrough with War (1983) and The Unforgettable Fire (1984). It notes How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) as U2's sixth number one album, sales of some 150 million albums by 2006, Songs of Experience (2017) as an eighth number-one album that gave the group a chart-topping album in four consecutive decades, more than 20 Grammy Awards, and a 2022 Kennedy Center Honor. On activism, Biography.com names DATA and One, organizations he helped create; Britannica dates Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa (DATA) to 2002, the ONE Campaign to 2004, a merger of DATA with ONE in 2008, a 2006 (Red) project, and earlier Amnesty International work, including the Conspiracy of Hope tour and later travel in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Name notes for searchers

Paul David Hewson is the documented birth name in both Biography.com and Britannica; the professional name is Bono. Searchers looking for U2's lead singer, The Joshua Tree, or the nickname Bono Vox are usually aiming at the same person.