Cee Lo Green was nicknamed Baby Hulk' when he was at school.

The American singer was called Thomas DeCarlo Callaway by his parents. He finds his given moniker too pedestrian, so prefers to be known by his stage name.

The star has been christened many things by friends in the past, some of which were highly unusual.

"I've had quite a few nicknames; Cee Lo, obviously, Baby Hulk when I was a little kid playing [American] football Chickenhead. I don't know why," he laughed.

Cee Lo has achieved worldwide fame on his own, but has written a number of well-known tracks for other artists.

He penned The Pussycat Dolls' 2005 breakthrough hit Don't Cha, a song he's very proud of. He tried to explain how he came up with the lyrics, in which a girl is flirting with a man who already has a partner.

"I was trying to think of an ideal woman a creature of a woman who would be so bold as to say something as outspoken as that song, you know?" he told Q magazine. "So I didn't think of myself as a woman, though I am a ladies' man."