Jay-Z is one of the privileged few who can call the currently incarcerated P Diddy by his birth name, Sean Combs.

The 54-year-old hip-hop artist has been making headlines under his legal name recently after being charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, transportation, and engaging in prostitution. He’s currently held in federal custody as he awaits trial, vehemently denying all allegations against him. Despite pleading not guilty, his requests for bail have been denied twice.

Diddy first burst onto the music scene in 1997 when his debut single “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” topped the charts. Over the years, he’s adopted several stage names, including the widely recognized Puff Daddy, before eventually becoming Diddy.

In 2001, following a not-guilty verdict on charges of gun possession and bribery, he decided to revamp his public image and changed his stage name to P. Diddy, reports the Mirror.

He stated at the time: “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.”

This new moniker was featured on his next album, The Saga Continues, and had already been used as a credit on various recordings he had worked on for other artists.

Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy, chose his stage name in honor of his best friend and fellow rapper Notorious BIG, who was tragically 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, paying tribute to the late rapper by sampling The Police’s 1983 hit “Every Breath You Take.”

In 2005, Sean decided to simplify his stage name to just Diddy, claiming that the initial “help but notice” was complicating his relationship with fans. However, due to a lawsuit from DJ Richard ‘Diddy’ Dearlove, he remained P Diddy in the UK.

Since then, he has legally changed his real name from Sean John Combs to Sean Love Combs. While Diddy remains his primary moniker, he occasionally reverts to Puff Daddy, particularly when working on projects related to his early career.

During a 2023 episode of Carpool Karaoke on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Diddy revealed that only two people call him by his birth name, Sean. He explained to 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.”

The rapper informed the host that he now prefers to be called Love. After going through a list of names, Corden pointed out that Diddy seemed to have “overlooked Sean.”

The rapper responded: “Sean is typically used by, you know, my mother. I don’t know, when you’re in trouble,”

He further revealed that only one other person is allowed to call him Sean – Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter. He stated: “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.”