American rapper P Diddy has had several aliases throughout his 30-year music career – but only allows two people to call him by his legal birth name, Sean Combs

Jay-Z is one of two people who are ‘allowed’ to call P Diddy by his birth name, Sean Combs.

The hip-hop musician, 54, has gained notoriety under his legal name in recent months after being charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, transportation and engaging in prostitution. He is currently in federal custody while awaiting trial and denies all allegations against him. He has pleaded not guilty but has been denied bail twice.

The American rapper shot to fame in 1997, with his debut single Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down hitting Number One in the charts. Combs has since been known under several names on stage over the years, including his arguably most well-known moniker of Puff Daddy, and his later transformation to Diddy.

In 2001, he changed up his stage name, becoming P. Diddy after wanting to freshen up his public persona following a not-guilty verdict on charges of gun possession and bribery.

At the time, he said: “No more Puff Daddy – the first week in June, we’re going to have a name-change ceremony. I’m not doing it as serious as Prince. I just want something fresh. I’m rocking with P Diddy just now.” The name change was applied to his next album, The Saga Continues, and had already been used as a credit on various recordings he had worked on for other artists.

He chose P. Diddy as it had reportedly been a name suggested for him by his best friend and fellow rapper Notorious BIG who was famously gunned down and killed in 1996. One of Diddy’s most famous songs, I’ll Be Missing You, was a collaboration with Notorious BIG’s wife Faith Evans as the pair paid tribute to him with the track which sampled Police’s 1983 hit Every Breath You Take.

During an episode of Carpool Karaoke on The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2023, Diddy revealed that only two people call him by his birth name, Sean. He told Corden: “I was born Puffy. Okay, and then I became P Diddy. Then they called me Diddy because I was so pretty. And then Puff Daddy.”

He informed the presenter that he now goes by the name Love. After going through the list of names, Corden said he couldn’t “help but notice” that Diddy had “overlooked Sean”. To which the rapper said: “Sean is typically used by, you know, my mother. I don’t know, when you’re in trouble”.

He added that one other person is allowed to call him Sean – Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter. He said: “There’s only one person, and I call him Shawn. That’s Jay-Z. We call each other Sean. Nobody else could call me Sean. There’s not a single person, outside of my mother, that should be calling me Sean.”

P Diddy to just Diddy

The year 2005 saw Sean once again grow tired of his performance name and dropped the P so he could become just Diddy. He claimed the initial letter was making his relationship with his fans harder. However, he did remain P Diddy in the UK thanks to a lawsuit from DJ Richard ‘Diddy’ Dearlove who took legal action over the change.

Since then he has changed his real name legally from Sean John Combs to Sean Love Combs. While Diddy has remained his mainstay he does also still use Puff Daddy as a name, especially when working on any material or projects related to his early career.