Not every DJ stage name was carefully planned. Some came from childhood nicknames, dead computer hardware, old chat handles, or a snap decision made minutes before a flyer went to print. A handful of these names ended up far more famous than the real ones behind them. Here are the origin stories behind 17 of electronic music’s biggest acts, including a few that the internet keeps getting slightly wrong. If you enjoy this kind of thing, we also dug into the aliases many of these artists used before they were famous.

DJ stage names pulled from language, myth, and heritage

Avicii took his name from Avīci, the lowest realm of Buddhist hell. Tim Bergling found the word atmospheric and fitting, and when the spelling “Avici” was already taken on MySpace, he simply doubled the final letter.

Zedd is tidier wordplay than the popular version suggests. Anton Zaslavski built the name from the first letter of his surname, Z. One correction worth making: the spelling reflects “zed,” the British and Commonwealth pronunciation of the letter, not a specifically German one, as the original viral post claimed.

KSHMR is “Kashmir” with the vowels stripped out, a nod to Niles Hollowell-Dhar’s Kashmiri heritage on his father’s side of the family.

Tiësto comes from Tijsje, the Dutch childhood nickname for his real first name, Tijs. He restyled it with an Italian sounding “o” ending, following a 1990s trend among Dutch DJs who wanted their names to read as more exotic.

Hardwell is a literal family translation. Robbert van de Corput’s father broke the surname into “cor” (heart, in Latin) and “put” (well, in Dutch), landed on “Heartwell,” then swapped “heart” for “hard” to give it more punch.

Accidents, inside jokes, and pure chance

deadmau5 is exactly what it sounds like. Joel Zimmerman found a dead mouse inside his computer, friends started calling him “the dead mouse guy,” and the handle became deadmau5 once a character limit forced “mouse” down to “mau5.”

Daft Punk owe their name to a bad review. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo’s earlier guitar band, Darlin’, was dismissed by a Melody Maker critic as “a daft punky thrash.” They kept the insult.

Diplo is short for Diplodocus, the long necked dinosaur that Thomas Wesley Pentz loved as a kid.

Fred again.. pulled his name from the 2002 live action Scooby-Doo movie. During the body swap scene, Fred, speaking in Daphne’s voice, blurts “I’m Fred, again!” Fred Gibson kept the line, double dots and all.

The Chainsmokers needed a name fast for promo flyers. The pick traced back to Alex Pall’s heavy smoking habit at the time. Drew Taggart, who joined later and says he has never smoked a cigarette, has joked that he would have changed it had he known how big they would get.

Reinvention, branding, and a couple of myths

Calvin Harris is a marketing decision, though not the one usually cited. Adam Wiles has said he picked “Calvin Harris” because his early material leaned soulful and the name sounded racially ambiguous, so listeners would not assume anything about him from it. The common claim that he chose it to sound “more internationally marketable” misses his own stated reason.

Skrillex was a screen name long before it was a stage name. Sonny Moore used “Skrillex,” along with “Skril” and “Skrilly,” as an online handle and nickname through his teens.

Kaskade started life as “cascade.” Ryan Raddon spotted the word beside a waterfall in a nature book, liked it, and changed the spelling.

John Summit built his name around the outdoors. The producer, real name John Schuster, figured “DJ John Schuster” would not fly, leaned on his love of skiing and mountains, picked “Summit,” then added his first name in front.

Alan Walker released early tracks as “DJ Walkzz” before stepping out under his real name.

Afrojack mixes two references, though not the ones the viral post listed. Nick van de Wall combined his old afro with “jack,” a term for a house music dance style. His height, contrary to the original claim, has nothing to do with it.

Illenium is the biggest myth on the list. The Star Wars story, that the name came from the “Millennium Falcon,” is not how Nick Miller tells it. He has said he found a word that resembled a chemical element and liked the sound, and the meaning he actually cares about lives in his phoenix symbol, not a starship.

Why these DJ stage names stuck

The pattern across all of these DJ stage names is that almost none of them were focus grouped. They came from hell realms and dinosaurs, dead hardware and bad reviews, cartoons and chat rooms. The names that stuck did so because the music behind them got big enough to make each one feel inevitable. Which DJ stage name story surprised you the most?