I was told to adopt the name ‘Robbie’ by my manager but I HATED it, reveals Robbie Williams

ROBBIE Williams says he was told to adopt the name “Robbie” by his manager but hated it as it sounds “cute”.

The star — real moniker Robert Williams — said he was horrified as he wanted to be “street and cool”.

It happened when Robbie started his career with Take That aged 16.

Despite his reservations, he said being told he had to drop Rob or Robert ultimately helped him because he came to regard Robbie as his alter ego.

Robbie, 48, said: “The name Robbie wasn’t my idea.

“The name was given to me by my manager.”

He said he was told: “OK, you’re not Robert any more, you’re Robbie.”

Speaking on Radio 1 DJ Annie Macmanus’s podcast Changes, he added: “I hated it because it made me sound cute — and I didn’t want to sound cute.

“I wanted to be street and cool, and Robbie was just not.”

The star said he now realises that having a different name helped him cope at the peak of his career when the “order of the day” was to “lacerate, dehumanise, vilify, pull down, put a contract out to kill (celebrities), beat them up”.

Robbie, who also revealed he will play himself in biopic Better Man, said: “It was the best thing he ever did because Robbie Williams isn’t me.

“This person they talked about, that they wanted to beat up, it wasn’t me.”