The Truth About Lil Nas X's Real Name

Lil Nas X explained where his stage name came from to BET, "'Nas' is already my internet alias, and when I first started rapping, I wasn't being serious, so it's like, 'OK, what'll be funny? Lil, lil, lil, [for] every new rapper.' So, 'Lil Nas,' aha!" But what about the X? It's apparently the reference to the Roman numeral for the number 10. "As I got more serious with music, I added the 'X' on, like, 'OK, this is the amount of time until I'm going to be, you know, at that mogul, legendary level," he explained. "So basically, 'Lil Nas' and the 'X' is like, for 10 years. By that point, I'll already be there, [but] I'm not saying it's going to take 10 years."

The singer has considered changing his stage name in the past, tweeting in April 2019, "nas is a legend and i never meant any disrespect by my stage name. i actually might change it in the future." Whatever name he uses, the music's still bound to be good if "Old Town Road" is a sample of the hits he can make.