Bob Dylan has used many different names throughout his career. Sometimes it was for fun, sometimes to hide his identity, and sometimes to try something new. Each name shows a different side of him — as a musician, writer, or performer. Here are some of the names he has used over the years and the stories behind them.
Elston Gunn
In the earliest days of his musical journey, just out of high school, Bob Dylan briefly performed under the name Elston Gunn. Using this alias, he played piano behind pop singer Bobby Vee, despite having minimal piano skills at the time. This marked his first use of an alternate identity in the music world — a glimpse into the many masks Dylan would go on to wear throughout his career.
Tedham Porterhouse
In 1964, Dylan played harmonica on Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s album Ramblin’ Jack and used the quirky pseudonym Tedham Porterhouse. Bound by a recording contract with Columbia Records, he couldn’t appear under his real name on outside projects. The name itself feels satirical, possibly poking fun at traditional, exaggerated folk names.
Blind Boy Grunt
While contributing protest songs to Broadside magazine sessions in the early ’60s, Dylan recorded under the name Blind Boy Grunt. At the time, he was under contract with Columbia and legally prevented from using his real name on other labels. The alias is a humorous nod to old blues naming traditions, where “Blind Boy” was a common trope, parodying the form while paying tribute to it.
Robert Milkwood Thomas
In 1972, Dylan made a low-profile guest appearance on Steve Goodman’s album Somebody Else’s Troubles, credited as Robert Milkwood Thomas. This pseudonym is layered with references: “Robert” is Dylan’s birth name, “Milkwood” nods to Dylan Thomas’s play Under Milk Wood, and “Thomas” likely honors the Welsh poet himself, from whom Bob Dylan took his stage name.
Boo Wilbury
As a founding member of the supergroup Traveling Wilburys, Dylan adopted the moniker Boo Wilbury on the group’s second album, Vol. 3. The band’s concept included each member adopting a fictional “Wilbury” surname. The use of playful pseudonyms reflected the group’s relaxed, tongue-in-cheek spirit.
Sergei Petrov
For the screenplay of the 2003 film Masked and Anonymous, Dylan wrote under the name Sergei Petrov, collaborating with director Larry Charles. The pseudonym adds a layer of mysterious Eastern European flair to the project, fitting the film’s surreal tone and Dylan’s ongoing exploration of identity and disguise.
Jack Frost
Beginning with the 2001 album Love and Theft, Dylan produced several of his own records under the alias Jack Frost. This name appears in the liner notes of major albums such as Modern Times, Tempest, and Rough and Rowdy Ways. The mythical figure of Jack Frost—an embodiment of winter—may reflect the cool, timeless, and often coldly poetic tone of Dylan’s late-career work.
Lucky Wilbury
On Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, Dylan took the name Lucky Wilbury, playing alongside fellow members Nelson, Otis, Lefty, and Charlie T. Wilbury. By the second album, he had become Boo. This rotating use of surnames was part of the band’s playful mythology, treating each member as part of a fictional musical family.
Bob Landy
In the mid-1960s, Dylan occasionally used the alias Bob Landy when contributing piano or keyboard work to instrumental sessions. This lesser-known pseudonym allowed him to separate his instrumental work from his public singer-songwriter persona.
Jim Nasium
I read somewhere (‘On the Tracks’, I think) that this was
the alias Dylan used in Japan in 1994 when checking into his hotel. I
though it might make an amusing addition to the Who’s Who.
Tricia Jungwirth
Alias (Character in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)
In Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Dylan made his acting debut as a mysterious, soft-spoken character named Alias. The name itself—meaning “a false or assumed identity”—perfectly captures Dylan’s lifelong fascination with self-reinvention and ambiguity.
Sources:
- Uncut Magazine – Bob Dylan’s Many Aliases: https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/the-many-aliases-of-bob-dylan-22668/
- The Bob Dylan Official Website: (Sections like biography and chronology may contain information about aliases, though it doesn’t directly provide a list of aliases.) https://www.bobdylan.com/
- Wikipedia – Bob Dylan: (Aliases might be mentioned within the career chronology.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan
- Rolling Stone Magazine – Bob Dylan’s Pseudonyms: (Specific articles might touch upon his aliases.)
- Various biographical books about Bob Dylan: (Detailed biographies often include such information.)
