Prompted by the Once Upon a Time in The ’70s post about nicknames, Stuart Neilson, from Cronulla Beach, New South Wales, Australia, explains how his known name morphed from that which he was given, to …

Led Zeppelin was one of many bands I followed in secondary school during my teenage years. What drew me to them over others at the time was John “Bonzo” Bonham’s drumming. His drumming style to my young ears was unique and a catalyst for me to want to be a drummer.

I found out very quickly that was not going to happen:

1) I could not afford a kit which stopped the dream dead right there and then,
2) with no kit there was no practice, and at that point my career as a drummer ended, before it even started.

However, a friend at school had a guitar and on a visit to his house one afternoon I discovered his younger brother had a drum kit. I sat down at the kit and started to play. I was terrible. Inevitably, after I attempted playing nothing remotely like John Bonham, I became known as Bonzo.

John Bonham got his Bonzo nickname as a teenager from a long-running British cartoon character, the fictional Bonzo being a lovable puppy pictured in a variety of innocent misadventures, so his similar disposition made the name predictable. I like to think my Bonzo nickname was given for the same reasons however I expect not.

My nickname then became Nobby which according to the dictionary definition is an adjective used in British slang to mean fashionable or elegant; stylish; or chic. My friends got it spot on, probably. 

Or maybe they were referring to a time in the past. The name Nobby came from the British Army in India during the Raj – a native working as a clerk in administration offices was called a Nobbi in the local language – so a clerk was a Nobbi.

Or they might have been thinking of 16th-century monks who wrote letters for the illiterate. These monks were referred to as “Clerks”. The outcome of so much writing caused calluses on the fingers called “nobs” and therefore the “Nobby Clerk” was born.

However, in reality, the truth of how I became Nobby is much more mundane.

I remember a gathering in one of the many ’empties’ that occurred on a regular Friday or Saturday night and fuelled by quarter bottles and cans of Special Brew there came a spontaneous game of nickname reversal. Everybody’s nickname was reversed or changed that night. I think mine was the easiest and Bonzo became Oznob.

Oznob was different. It was unexpected, quirky, and undeniably memorable. Slowly but surely, Oznob became my new normal. The name had a sense of individuality that Bonzo had never quite captured. I embraced the oddity of it, and I liked it.

However, just as everyone was getting used to it, another “empty” wanted a shorter punchier version and Nob was voted my new name which apparently was a lot easier to say.

As you can imagine I was not enamoured with my new name which I immediately rejected in favour of a longer version which ironically was as long as the original Oznob but hey, that’s how teenage minds work.

I became Nobby and so, here’s to Nobby to Bonzo, and to Oznob, all are part of the same story and the enduring power of a well-chosen nickname.