How to Come Up With a Rap Name

To come up with a rap name, collect raw material from your own life (your real name, a nickname, your area, a word you keep using), combine it using one of a few standard patterns, and test the shortlist: say it aloud, search it, check the handles, check the meaning and check the spelling.

The name does not have to be clever. It has to be easy to say, easy to find and yours. Plenty of lasting stage names are simply a nickname someone else gave the artist, or a real first name with one change.

Give yourself a limit. Generate for twenty minutes, shortlist three, run the checks, and live with the winner for a week before you put it on a release. A rushed choice is usually the one you end up changing after your first release.

Names that stick usually come from something true. Write a list under each heading, without judging. Ten minutes should give you thirty or more words to work with.

Ask three people who know you well what word they would use for you, and add their answers. Other people often see the name before you do.

• Your own name: first name, middle name, initials, a short form, the name spelled a new way.
• Nicknames: what family, friends or teammates already call you, and why.
• Place: street, estate, city, area code, a local landmark or slang word.
• Character: a trait, a habit, an object you always carry, a word that recurs in your lyrics.

Most rap names follow a handful of shapes. Run your raw material through each one and you will have options that sound like rap names, not usernames.

Sound matters as much as meaning. Hard consonants such as K, T, B and D give a name punch, and repeated sounds, like the same first letter in both words, make it stick. Say each option aloud as you write it.

• Prefix and name: a tag such as Lil, Big or Young before a short form of your name.
• First name and new surname: your real first name with an invented second word.
• Initial and word: one letter and one hard noun.
• Two-word alias: an adjective or noun pair with no real name in it.
• Single word: one unusual word, often respelled so it can be searched.

Say the name aloud ten times, then say "Make some noise for" in front of it. Two to four syllables is the comfortable range. If you stumble, or it sounds like another word, a host will get it wrong on stage.

Then search it in quotation marks on a search engine, on the streaming services you plan to use and on video platforms. If an active artist already has the name or one a letter away, drop it. Sharing a name splits your search results, and some services merge releases onto the wrong profile.

Try the name in the places it will live: written small under a song title, shouted across a room, said in a sentence such as "the new single by". Try it as a chant with a crowd in mind. Some names look strong on paper and go soft when spoken.

Look for the same handle on every platform you intend to post on. An exact match everywhere is ideal. If it is taken, a consistent small addition, such as "music" or your city, is better than a different handle on each site.

Finally, search the trademark database for your country for the name in the music and entertainment classes. A registered mark in that area is a reason to choose something else. A name generator cannot do this check for you, so do it by hand for each name on the shortlist.

Check the web address too if you plan to have a site, and write down everything you find in one note with the date. If two names are otherwise equal, take the one that is free in more places.

Look up every word in the name, including slang meanings and meanings in other languages spoken where you live. Ask two people what the name makes them think of. You want to be able to explain it in a single sentence when an interviewer asks.

Then test the spelling. Say the name to a friend and ask them to type it. If they need a second try, simplify it: numbers, doubled letters and symbols make you harder to find and tag.

Think about capital letters and spacing now, and decide on one form. "Quiet Nine", "QuietNine" and "QUIET NINE" are three different searches on some platforms. Use the same form on every profile and every cover.

Put the surviving name on something small: a profile, a demo file, the signature on a message. Use it for a week. If it still feels right when you hear a friend say it, that is the name.

Changing later is possible but costly, because profiles, links and old releases all carry the previous name. Take the extra week now.

Once you commit, claim the handles on the same day, even on platforms you do not use yet, and put the name on your first cover and in the file names of your demos.