Did some googling, apparently I misremembered the story of Tsunku renaming Robin... he changed her family name from Stukas to Okada, but the "Robin Shoko" part was from her parents. I totally had the impression that he gave her the Robin to "exoticize" her name, but that doesn't seem to be what happened! Human memory is such a flawed thing It seems that the 6-characters you need to write Stukas in Japanese got on Tsunku's nerves so he DE-exoticized her down to 2 characters.
Ah I knew about Robin's family name. She was born in the US and we theorize that Stukas was her American family name. Not sure if it was on her dad or mom's side. I cannot recall which part of the US tho. If you search Robin's thread you would find the discussion we had back then.
Edit:
Since there were only 5 pages on Robin's thread I went and have a look and found the discussion on the 1st page
We didn't actually find out where she was born in the US.
This is the first time I've seen a Japanese name with 3 parts.
Ehh.. I just realise she has a stage name and a real name and her real name doesn't even sound like Japanese.
Could she be mixed? Stukas sounds Russian to me. I'm guessing Shouko is her Japanese family name.
Edit:
Stupid me didn't read her whole profile first
Ok she was born in the US with the name Stukas. It is likely one of the parent, maybe her father, was Russian?
eee I love Robin! I love how cuz she's half American she's says she can speak English but she really can't (apart from the basics u learn in school anyway)
Anyway favourite member! She had an awesome role in the 4th 'tsunku theater' she acted it really well and eeeep that scene!
edit: lol looks like i answered zam's question without meaning to, yes she's half american. Okada is her japanese name(presumably her mothers) and Stukas is her actual surname(presumably her fathers) They changed it to okada after she became an Egg so it seems it was probably just to make being famous in japan easier.