How Snoop Dogg Got His Stage Name

Relax, folks. Everything is fine when you listening to the D-O-G. He got the cultivating music that be captivating he ... well, you know how it goes from there: rollin', smokin', hittin' them corners in them low lows, girl. And at present, Snoop Dogg's habits and talents have made him worth about $150 million, as Wealthy Gorilla tells us. 

Yes, Snoop Dogg, also Snoop "Doggy" Dogg, Snoop D-O-Double G, also Rastafarian-era Snoop Lion and about a hundred other nicknames, has crafted quite the colorful public persona for himself. Since being signed to Dr. Dre's Death Row Records and putting out his hit debut album Doggystyle in 1993, Snoop's released a string of notable records on his way to solidifying his legacy as a hip-hop and pop culture icon, such as 1996's Tha Dogfather and 2013's Reincarnated. He's also made some admittedly questionable career choices, such as a filmmaking turn playing a vengeful spirit in 2001's Bones, and had some unexpected ups as well, such as when he did a legitimately funny job roasting guests on Comedy Central's celebrity roasts (YouTube's got clips).

But where did g-funk's favorite consonant-drawler get his signature name from? Rap's got its fair share of canine-themed monikers — Bow Wow, Pitbull, Nate Dogg — so what about Snoop? Was he a nosy neighbor at some point, accused of snooping around someone else's bidniss? Is he a cousin of Nate Dogg? Or was it merely some effortless title that rolled off the tongue one day?

Well, as it turns out, Snoop's story about how he got his name is far more wholesome than you might expect: he got it from his mom. That's it. But unlike Snoop's own comparison of himself to a Doberman Pinscher, as portrayed in his CGI transformation in his very first single "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" (watchable on YouTube), Snoop's mom thought he looked like Snoopy from the Peanuts comics by Charles Schultz. Yep, as Biography says, one of the West Coast's early gangsta rappers kept the name given to him to by his mother when she caught a glimpse of his profile one day.

Snoop, in fact — born Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr. in Long Beach, California, October 20, 1971 — was very much preoccupied with embodying, and capitalizing on, his doggy-dog image in those early days. His entire first album, and its aforementioned first single, served to parlay the pinscher persona that would solidify his face and name in the minds of listeners. Snoop was rolling with the Crips and only about 20 years old when he started circulating his early demos. What better way to escape from neighborhood troubles and also stand out from his peers than to leverage his bone structure into fame? 

And in case you were wondering: Nate Dogg (R.I.P.) was actually his cousin, as well as an early songwriting collaborator. The dog pound, indeed.