This has probably been asked before but I wanted to add another layer/an alternative.

So, I ask, where did your username/pseudonym/nickname originate from? What’s the meaning behind it?

Or alternatively, which is the most creative/interesting nickname origin you have come across?

  • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
    3·
    4 hours ago

    This is a question I was asked all my life, so already in 2004 I wrote a blog post about it: https://paradies.jeena.net/weblog/2004/oct/jeena-paradies but it’s in German so I’m posting the translation here:

    It was sometime in the year 2000 when I had already been DJing at small parties for a while, playing house, drum’n’bass, big beats, and electro. When people asked who the DJ was, everyone just said, “That’s Richard.” Naturally, that didn’t sound very cool for an alternative DJ. Then my cousin, who was also a DJ but played the more mainstream style of techno, chose the name DJ Alec-tron, which put some pressure on me. Since we often DJed together, and I didn’t want to go down in history as “DJ Richard,” I needed a proper DJ name.

    So I started looking for a suitable artist name for myself as a disc jockey. One day, we took the train to the Love Parade in Berlin. We stocked up on canned beer the day before and opened the first can as early as 3:00 AM (in the middle of the night). The fun and drinking continued merrily. I occasionally glanced out the window, hoping to find inspiration from some distant land (aka eastern Germany).

    And then it appeared—like the Holy Grail once revealed itself to King Arthur and his knights—from out of nowhere: the station sign “Jena Paradies.” I instantly knew that this would be my new artist name. It was as if the hand of God had guided me along the tracks to Jena Paradies station and bestowed this name upon me.

    Jena Paradies train station

    A month after the Love Parade, I had my first gig as DJ Jena Paradies. There’s even photographic evidence from that time:

    People at a party, a DJ spinning vinyl records

    But over time, I didn’t want to be named after a station in eastern Germany anymore, so I started thinking of a new, better version of the name. I realized that if I added an “e,” the name would be pronounced like Gina Wild’s first name. That sounded much cooler to me, so it became my stage name to this day.

    Pronunciation: First name pronounced like Gina Wild’s first name roughly "Djeena" and last name pronounced like the German word "Paradies" paradise

    I now use it almost everywhere related to me as an “artist”—very often online, with my band, and for photography, which I want to do more of in the future.