I always believed that the name Bob Dylan had come from a great admiration the young Robert Zimmerman had for the poet Dylan Thomas. However, the choosing of his new name happened in a shallow and unsophisticated fashion, which I never could imagine. If I wasn't reading the story from the Dylan's memoirs, I certainly would say loud and in disbelief - "Bull Shit!" Hence, the truth must be told, and so here is it......
"One time she asked me why I was using a different name when I played, especially in the neiboring towns. Like, didn't I want people to know who I was? "Who is Elston Gunn?" she asked. "That's not you, is it?" "Ah, " I said, "you'll see." The Elston Gunn name thing was only temporary. What I was going to do as soon as I left home was just call myself Robert Allen. As far as I was concerned, that was who I was - that's what my parents named me. It sounded like a name of a Scottish king and I liked it. There was little of my identity that wasn't in it. What kind of confused me later was seeing an article in a Downbeat magazine with a story about a West Coast saxophone player named David Allyn. I had suspected that the musician had changed the spelling of Allen to Allyn. I could see why. It looked more exotic, more inscrutable. I was going to do this, too. Instead of Robert Allen it would be Robert Allyn. Then sometime later, unexpectedly, I'd seen some poems by Dylan Thomas. Dylan and Allyn sounded similar. Robert Dylan. Robert Allyn. I couldn't decide. - the letter D came on stronger. But Robert Dylan didn't look or sound as good as Robert Allyn. People had always called me either Robert or Bobby, but Bobby Dylan sounded too skittish to me and besides, there already was a Bobby Darin, a Bobby Vee, a Bobby Rydell, a Bobby Neely, and a lot of other Bobbys. Bob Dylan looked and sounde better than Bob Allyn. The first time I was asked my name in the Twin Cities, I instinctively and automatically without thinking simply said, "Bob Dylan".