DiddyA new name change was introduced by the company, which is legally binding.
51-year old rapper Sean John Combs announced that he has legally changed his name to Sean Love Combs. The New York native shared an image of his Florida driver’s license with the name as well as what appears to be the legal paperwork for the switch.
“Look what I just got in the mail today… 🖤💫✨⚡️IT’S OFFICIAL!!! WELCOME TO THE LOVE ERA,” he captioned the photo of his license in May 2021.
He also shared the court order declaring his change of name in a separate post. “Imma need y’all to take me seriously on this one!!!” he wrote with the hashtag “The Love Era.”
In November 2017, the artist announced his new name for the first time.
“I’ve been praying on this and I know it’s risky because it could come off corny to some people, but I’ve decided to change my name again,” he revealed in a videoon social media at the moment. “I’m just not who I [was] before. I’m something different. So my new name is ‘Love’ — aka ‘Brother Love.’”
He said that his past names would be forgotten. “I will not be answering to Puffy, Diddy, Puff Daddy, or any of my other monikers but ‘Love’ or ‘Brother Love,’” he said.
Fans know that this isn’t his first or even second time that the artist formerly known as Diddy has changed his stage name, though it may be his first legal name swap.
Puffy was a nickname Puffy received as a child for Love. He used to “huff and puff” when he lost his temper, and the moniker caught on. Complex reports that he even used it in his first musical recordings.
Though he was credited as Puffy in the early ‘90s, he was also being credited as Puff Daddy on certain albums. He posted his official timeline to Instagram May 2021. It shows that 1995 was the Puffy era, and 1996 is the beginning for the Puff Dad era.
After releasing 1997’s There’s no other way and 1999’s ForeverAs Puff Daddy, it was the right time for something else.
“No more Puff Daddy — the first week in June we’re gonna have a name change ceremony,” he told MTV in March 2001. “I’m not doing it as serious as Prince [but] I just want something fresh … I’m rockin’ with P. Diddy now — my man Biggie gave me that name.”
After becoming P. Diddy, the performer noticed fans weren’t chanting his name in unison, so he wanted to make their lives easier.
“I felt the ‘P’ was getting in between me and my fans,” he explained on Today2005. “We had to simplify it. It was, you know, doing concerts and half the crowd saying, ‘P. Diddy,’ half the crowd chanting ‘Diddy.’ Now everybody can just chant ‘Diddy.’”
The name stuck, but he couldn’t legally release albums under Diddy. He had to release 2006’s Play as P. Diddy after a lawsuit from DJ Richard “Diddy” Dearlove.
While stage names are used in his music career, the artist’s clothing line is Sean John, named for his first and middle names. It isn’t clear if the lifestyle company could rebrand as Sean Love.
Check out all of Diddy’s names below:
