How To Choose A DJ Name

What’s in a name?

For beginner DJs it means a lot, it’s almost a rite of passage in the DJ community.

You may have wondered how different DJs came up with their names. The ones that immediately peak your interest and tell you who they are and the ruckus they bring.

You know these DJ’s:

• DeadMau5
• Richie Hawtin
• Dieselboy

And the list goes on and on.

The name just snags you, pops out whenever you look at a party flier. A DJ name is your personal brand, a moniker so people recognize you. It makes you go from being “that guy” to “holy shit, it’s that guy!”

So how do you choose a DJ name? Read on and let’s figure it out.

The “Nickname”

Not all DJ names are ones you choose. Nicknames often transfer over, a natural choice for Beginner DJs.

Amongst your friends and social circuit, many people may already know you best by your nickname. It’s only a given that you adapt your nickname as your DJ name.

The benefits of using your nickname is that it doesn’t feel alien. You can easily use your nickname as your DJ name without it sounding as if you are changing up everything you’re used to.

Your Real Name

Some DJs choose to use their real name as their DJ name.

Sometimes this can be a hit or a miss. If you have a silly name such as Dick Cheese, I highly doubt that it’s going to work well as your DJ name (sorry everyone, DJ Polesmoker is taken).

Likewise, your name could be one of those names that immediately stand out. Take, for example, Richie Hawtin, it’s not that common of a name, Richie used it perfectly to make…a name for himself.

A great benefit of using your real name is you’ll never have the confusion by your fans and random listeners trying to figure out who you are.

Com+bina+tions

A good way you can choose a DJ name is to combine words or some of your interests together.

I remember when I was creating names for my MMO characters, I would take parts of my name to create something awesome.

I took the first 3 letters of my first name, combined with the first 2 of my last name and voila! Murlu.

You could also take things you like, combine them and create a cool DJ name.

Let’s take cigarettes and beer: Cigeer? Eh, nevermind.

The “combo” is great because you can take things that people love about the rave community and twist it around to make them think. Remember the old 90s rave fliers where they’d use popular logos? Yeah, kind of like that.

Inside Jokes

Inside jokes make some of the most unique DJ names around.

Every group of friends have their inside jokes, maybe you could use this to choose a DJ name.

Although your fans may not all know what the DJ name means, it also gives them something to talk about. A little bit of an edge.

This inside joke can be also amongst the music scene you listen to. There’s certain terms people always love to sling around.

I’m sure you’ll find a ton of variations of ‘Grime’ as a Dubstep DJ name. DJ Grimelock, Grime and Punishment, Grimeior Grimlock? Eh.

The Random Ass Randal

So finally, let’s just take the most random ass words and names, throw em all together and what do you get? A random ass DJ name.

DJ names such as Moderat come to mind. It’s seemingly two random words thrown together but it’s definitely something you remember.

These DJ names work just because of how batshit insane they can become sometimes. Who would have thought Aphex Twin would become such a well known name in the Electronic Music world. You don’t hear that name every day.

2012 Update: The How to DJ Fast Video Course by DigitalDJTips.com has launched and it’s incredible. The video course covers everything from equipment to learning to mix – if you’re just starting than I highly recommend you take a look.

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