Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Stone Town in the British protectorate of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) on 5 September 1946. His parents, Bomi (1908–2003) and Jer Bulsara (1922–2016), were from the Parsi community of western India. The Bulsaras had origins in the city of Bulsar (now Valsad) in Gujarat. He had a younger sister, Kashmira.
The family had moved to Zanzibar so that Bomi could continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. As Parsis, the Bulsaras practised Zoroastrianism. Mercury was born with four supernumerary incisors, to which he attributed his enhanced vocal range. As Zanzibar was a British protectorate until 1963, Mercury was born a British subject, and on 2 June 1969 was registered a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies after the family had emigrated to England.
Mercury spent most of his childhood in India where he began taking piano lessons at the age of seven while living with relatives. In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at St. Peter's School, a British-style boarding school for boys, in Panchgani near Bombay.[13] At the age of 12, he formed a school band, the Hectics, and covered rock and roll artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard. One of Mercury's former bandmates from the Hectics has said "the only music he listened to, and played, was Western pop music". A friend recalls that he had "an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano". It was also at St. Peter's where he began to call himself "Freddie". In February 1963 he moved back to Zanzibar where he joined his parents at their flat.
The house in Zanzibar where Mercury lived in his early years-
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