His father started calling him ‘Bruno’ at age 2, because according to him he looked like professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino.
He added ‘Mars’ as surname because as he explained: ‘I felt like I didn't have any pizzazz, and a lot of girls say I’m out of this world, so I was like I guess I'm from Mars’.
The adoption of his stage name was also an effort to avoid being stereotyped as a Latin artist. They even tried to convince Mars to sing in Spanish, because Bruno Mars' real name is Peter Gene Hernandez Bayot.