This may have been the most difficult mental struggle I have ever encountered. For the last two months, I’ve been trying to come up with a DJ name. I’ve played a few gigs here and there, but now that things are picking up (700+ person paid gigs, wooo!) I REAAAALLLYYYY need to decide on something.
How did you decide on yours? What’s your story?
Since everybody’s staking out valuable space on the internet, I’ve come to figure out that just about every possible combination of letters has been taken, usually by some 28-friend high schooler on myspace. I’ve attached a couple short clips to give a tiny window into what I do. Maybe if you have some free time, I’d love to hear observations/input.
I understand branding is unbelievably important, I’ve even got a friend with a plotter and hundreds of feet of vinyl for stickers, and a major in graphic design. This is the weak link. I mean, a name is just a name. Am I putting too much thought into this?
Well for me it was a bit of a process aswell. I didnt want to go with a name with DJ in the title, and my full name sounded boring and too “formal” for parties so I was at a loss.
Eventually I just started playing around with my name. My first name is Richard and my middle name is Otto, so I took the Ri from Richard, and my middle name, combined them to make Riotto.
Interesting approach! Today, I had written down all the DJ/Producer names that had word aesthetics I enjoyed, (Vaski, Avicii, Kaskade, Rusko, Netsky, Skrillex, etc.) and tried to take bits and pieces, or use similar letters.
I actually didn’t come up with my name. It sort of grew on me and stuck. :U
Onimode is my older brother’s old alias that he used when he played StarCraft. Many years after that time, we got an Xbox 360. He made the gamertag for Xbox Live OniMode. He joined the Air Force and left the Xbox to my little brother and I. Since many of my friends would refer to me as Onimode whenever we played some Modern Warfare 2, they decided to call me Onimode when I DJ’ed their parties. Additionally, one of my friends told the activity director at my school to call me Onimode on the flyer for a school dance, so the rest of my high school called me Onimode for a while.
By the way, you’ve got a lot of nice toys there. /want.
I used to fight a lot and hate on people so I was bestowed the name Hate by my friends. When I started to Dj well, it was only natural to have DJ attached to the beginning of that moniker.
I cant suggest anything, but I like Riotto put together a name for my production projects using parts of my name and a certain colour (not Ajrindy, that’s actually closer to my real name, but Rindigo, you can find me on soundcloud if you like)
I just want to say that your videos are fabulous, particularly the second one, the promo video. top tier stuff, and I can definitely see this netting you a lot of good things. it’s flashy, well edited, interesting, and shows that you are SERIOUS BUSINESS
Any time I watch TV, am on a flight, or was just bored I had a part of my notebook just for brainstorming. I came up with a list of 4-names in the end and added in a Fifth that my Pops came up with… My pop’s idea won sadly, so I have no good advice really.
My favorite band came up with their name when the lead singer took his top 5 travel list and just played with the words. At the end of the list there were the words “And Berlin” he combined them and made the band name “Anberlin.” Not sure if that helps at all, but maybe the name should mean something to you, so look at what you already have around you.
If you want a funny or cool one instead of a meaningful one just get a notepad to brainstorm with and set a deadline so you focus on it.
when i was born my name was supposed to be Ranzerox Sebastian. but it wasnt normal enough for my father to handle so i was named christian. but ever since knowing that story i used Ranzer or ranzerox as my screen name for everything so naturally i ported it over as my dj name
Mine came from … well, a strong preference for citrus fruit, and Sprite
Honestly, though, it won because it is easy for people to say out loud, and it has the added bonus that is the fad of having numbers for letters (I see too many 3OH3! t-shirts at my local mall…)
I think I had it down to like 5 names and my wife chose the one that was … the least retarded?
In marketing, you can brand any name to your style of music - so the real important things are how they LOOK IN WRITING, how they SOUND, and if they’re memorable. (The memorable part of mine comes from the tag line)
[edit] “Always Refreshing” (thought djtt forum had taglines under usernames…lol) [/edit]
But Micah, I would just go for your name: Micah Cruver. Maybe build that into Micah Cruyer.
I used to go under the name tekki, which was based one of the katas I loved most with karate and the fact that I loved things techy.
Until a certain point I found that there also was a new d&b dj based in the UK, who was also calling himself tekki, next to a another guy calling himself teki latex who was releasing tracks like mad.
Nowadays I settle for the name Leslie Jones, which is my first name with the second name of my daughter. (Who is called Riley Jones, Jones not even being her last name)
Mine was just a nickname from steven, at work years ago developed to steffan then stiffan to stiffler to stiffy so mr stifffy kinda stuck after a rushing an application form on a site the three f’s stuck… People think stifffy is dirty but its just a name, I guess I like to play dirty dubstep and electro house
I used to use DjCos (just a shorter version of my name, Constantine) but I now see there are quite a few “DjCoses” out there so I need to find a new one =.=
