How Smokey Robinson Got His Name

According to Robinson, his uncle Claude, who was his favorite uncle as well as his godfather, did give him the nickname Smokey, but it wasn't inspired by his complexion. As a child, Robinson loved cowboy movies and his beloved uncle would take him to see them and came up with a cowboy name for his

According to Robinson, his uncle Claude, who was his favorite uncle as well as his godfather, did give him the nickname Smokey, but it wasn't inspired by his complexion. As a child, Robinson loved cowboy movies and his beloved uncle would take him to see them and came up with a cowboy name for his nephew, Smokey Joe. Robinson reminisced: "From the time I was 3 years old if people asked me what my name was I didn't tell them my name was William, I told them my name was Smokey Joe."

Starting around age 12, Robinson dropped the "Joe" portion of the nickname and started going by Smokey. Just a few short years later, according to Britannica, Smokey started his first group, the Matadors, who would go on to become the Miracles and make Uncle Claude's affectionate nickname for his cowboy-movie-loving nephew known far and wide. Robinson acknowledged in the Los Angeles Sentinel interview that he, too, had heard the rumor about receiving the nickname because he was a light-skinned Black man, but set the story straight, clarifying, "that's not true."

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