According to common knowledge and a government-issued document, respectively, the globally famous popularizer of reggae is named Bob Marley and he was born on April 6, 1945. Neither of these basic facts about Marley are entirely correct. When Marley was born, his parents christened him Nesta Robert Marley. Nesta, a rare name in Jamaica, was suggested by Marley’s father, and it means “messenger.” Marley’s mother, Cedella, was concerned people would wind up calling her son “Lester,” but they mostly ended up using Bob, short for Robert, which came from the child’s paternal uncle.
Marley biographers cite his actual date of birth as February 6, but that can’t be confirmed. His mother hesitated to register her child’s birth for two months because she, a Black woman, feared persecution for carrying on a relationship with Marley’s father, a white man. When the birth was finally recorded around two months later, it was listed as April 6; Cedella Marley believed the birth took place right around February 6.
