American artist Post Malone became a well-known name across the world after releasing his 2015 debut single White Iverson – but some fans still don’t know the story behind his iconic rap name

He has won 10 Billboard Music Awards and has nine Grammy Award nominations – but many people still have no idea how Post Malone got his rap name.

Post Malone, born Austin Richard Post, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and guitarist. He is known for mixing various genres together to create his music – including hip hop, pop, trap, country and R&B. The 29-year-old became a household name after releasing his 2015 debut single White Iverson, peaking at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Since then, he has gone on to win 14 awards and 101 nominations for his work. However, some of his fans have been left wondering how he came to be known as Post Malone, with one Reddit user asking: “Where did it come from?”

According to the artist, he chose Post Malone as his stage name when he was 14 or 15 years old. While it has been widely rumoured to be inspired by professional basketball player Karl Malone, this is not the case. He explained how he simply got Post from his surname and used an online ‘rap name generator’ to come up with Malone.

Post Malone performs at the Sahara Tent at 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Image: Getty Images for Coachella)
A statement on Indigo Music reads: “The ambitious rapper adopted his stage moniker at a young age, long before achieving multi-platinum hits and Grammy nominations. During an appearance on Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg’s VH1 show, Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party, he shared that he began calling himself Post Malone around the age of 14.

“In a 2011 interview with Jimmy Fallon, Malone revealed that he used an online rap name generator, inspired by Donald Glover, who also found his stage name using the Wu-Tang generator. He recounted how entering his name into the generator was amusing until he saw “Post Malone” and immediately loved it.

“The pseudonym combines his last name, Post, with the rest generated by the online tool. He’s not alone in this method—fellow musician Childish Gambino also derived his name from an online Wu-Tang Clan generator.” As Post is considered to be “kind” and “down-to-earth”, many fans believe it’s fitting that he’d use an online name generator for such a task.

Commenting on this revelation, one Reddit user said: “Post Malone said that he got it from a rapper name generator, so maybe he’s trying to cover his WoW [World of Warcraft] addiction up. Another user added: “Is this real?” A third user said: “Of course he did.” One more user added: “I honestly would have thought he just liked Malorne from the Lore.”