Buzz Aldrin’s birth name was Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.

 

Buzz Aldrin’s birth name was Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.

He got the nickname “Buzz” from his sister’s mispronunciation of the word “brother”, which became “buzzer”.

In 1988, he legally changed his first name to “Buz

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin was born on January 20, 1930, in Montclair, New Jersey. Nicknamed "Buzz" by his sister, Aldrin's upbringing contributed greatly to his later career choices. His mother, Marion Moon, was the daughter of an army chaplain. His father, Air Force Colonel Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Sr., was a former student of rocket scientist Robert Goddard, and an aviation pioneer in his own right.

Aldrin graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1951, ranking third in his graduating class. After graduation, Aldrin was as an officer in the Air Force. A year later, he was sent to Korea as a fighter pilot. He completed 66 fighter missions during the Korean War, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He then served as an Air Force instructor in Nevada before being assigned to the Air Force Academy as an aide and later a flight instructor. In 1956, he became a flight commander for a squadron in West Germany (now Germany).

In 1959, Aldrin decided he needed a new career challenge and became interested in the developing U.S. space program. He enrolled in an engineering program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He graduated in 1963 with a Doctor of Science degree in Orbital Mechanics; his thesis dealt with the piloting and rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit.