The Essentials

How DJs Got Their Names (Part II)

Above & Beyond

With Grant and Siljamäki teaming up with McGuiness to form a trio, Above & Beyond became their artists name. They plucked the name Above & Beyond from a web page belonging to an American motivational trainer called Jono Grant which was stuck on the wall of the studio. [Source]

Benny Benassi
People used to call me Benny when I was at school. It came from my surname, Benassi. [Source]

Chuckie
Where I grew up everybody had a nickname. Some had a nickname because it was “cool” and some had a nickname to hide from the police. Obviously I was not hiding from the police but when I had to choose a stage name I stuck by my nickname my friends gave me, Chuckie. I used to be a little rascal when I was young, that’s why my friends called me Chuckie, inspired by Chucky the doll from that movie Child’s Play. [Source]

Daft Punk
They took the name “Daft Punk” from a review that described their song “Cindy, So Loud” as “daft punky thrash.” [Source]

Infected Mushroom

There was a band before us called Infected Mushroom. They used to make punk rock and new wave and they broke up and went to London. Then me and Erez started to do music and we really liked the name and we took it. [Source]

Kaskade
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and at the time house music was really popular amongst my friends. I chose the name Kaskade because I liked the way it sounded and for whatever reason it felt organic to me. [Source]

Knife Party

The name is derived from a Deftones song of the same name, which caused consternation at first as it implied that they supported knife crime, although Swire stated that “…we’re not advocating any type of knife-related crime any more than Swedish House Mafia were advocating organised crime.” [Source]

Laidback Luke
I come from a musical family, but I was always the one that was the least technically skilled in terms of playing instruments. When I found out music could be made with the help of a computer, I could finally unleash all the music that had always been trapped inside my head. I chose my stage name because I wanted a double letter name. Something with an ‘L’ needed to fit before Luke. Then I heard Snoop Dogg rapping in Gin And Juice ‘Laaaidbaaack…’ and it was just perfect! Later on my friends told me it actually fits my persona in real life too.I wanted an artist name which had something to do with my own name. Jordy van Egmond isn’t very easy to the ear so I had to come up with something else. DYRO is actually just JORDY rearranged without the J. [Source]

Vicetone
People sometimes think that the word ‘Vice’ has something to do with Victor’s name, but it’s actually the other way around. Ruben really liked the word ‘vice’, and Victor liked the word ‘tone’, so we decided to combine them! Coming up with a name was actually a pretty long and tedious process. We just couldn’t think of a good name that wasn’t already in use by other artists or companies. So we were pretty relieved after finally finding a way to combine 2 words we really liked into an artist’s name that was unique and pretty cool sounding… in our opinion at least.. [Source]

Krewella
Anton Zaslavski, better known to burgeoning hordes of fans as the DJ/producer Zedd, got his stage name as a matter of convenience.
As a middle-schooler in Germany, he often sat next to a good friend who shared his first name. When the teacher would call on Anton, they’d both answer. So they simply started referring to each other by the first letter of their respective last names–Zaslavski went by the European “zed” and later tacked on another “d” to make his moniker stand out.  [Source]