“I was looking for the hundredth time through the phone directories in the back of the Beggars [Banquet] office when, in the middle of the Earl’s Court edition of Yellow Pages, I came across the name Neumann. Exactly what it was is hard to remember, it may have been a plumber or a kitchen appliance company but whatever, it was the name for me. The only problem was its German origins at a time when David Bowie was working extensively in Berlin. I didn’t want to look as though I was adopting any of his German influences. To get round the problem I dropped the ‘e’ and the extra ‘n’ and so ended up with the N U M A N spelling.”

Gary Numan, Praying to the Aliens: An Autobiography (1997), pp.50-51