Sean 'Diddy' Combs Reveals He Officially Changed His Middle Name: 'Welcome to the Love Era'

The 51-year-old rapper announced Monday that he'd changed his middle name from "John" to "Love," posting a photo of his new driver's license on Instagram

By

Katie Campione

Published on May 3, 2021 07:48 PM

Sean "Diddy" Combs officially has a new name!

The 51-year-old rapper announced Monday that he'd changed his middle name from "John" to "Love," posting a photo of his new driver's license on Instagram.

"Look what I just got in the mail today... 🖤💫✨⚡️," he captioned the photo of the Florida ID. "IT'S OFFICIAL!!! WELCOME TO THE LOVE ERA."

Along with the photo of the ID, Combs also added a snap of himself writing "Love" inside of a heart, with different iterations of his signature above it.

Combs first filed a petition in Los Angeles in 2019 to change his middle name to "Love."

Nearly two years before filing a petition, Combs teased the change to "Love," although he later said that he was joking about the new moniker and encouraged people to call him by any of the names he's gone by over the years.

"I decided to change my name again! My new name is LOVE aka Brother Love. #TakeDat" he said on Twitter in November 2017.

"Hey what's up y'all? I have some very, very serious news," he said in a video taken on a beach accompanying the tweet. "I've been praying on this, and I decided — I know it's risky, it could come off as corny to some people, like yo — I decided to change my name again," he said with a shrug.

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"I'm just not who I am before. I'm something different. So my new name is Love, AKA Brother Love. I will not be answering to Puffy, Diddy, Puff Daddy, or any of my other monikers but Love or Brother Love, okay? It's my birthday, I feel good. God is the greatest, I give all the glory, and I thank my momma and daddy," he ended, giving a smooch to the camera.

But two days after sharing that video, the rapper revealed that he had been kidding around, and welcomed people to call him any of his various names.

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"Due to the overwhelming response to the media out there, and just to not wanting there to be any confusion, I was only joking. I didn't change my name," he said in an Instagram video. "It was just part of one of my alter egos, and one of my alter egos is Love."

He added: "To set the record straight, because I have a lot of press to do in the next couple weeks, you can address me by any of my older names, but if you still wanna call me Love, you can call me Love, baby. But I was only playing."