Stopping by The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Lil Nas X opened up about the inspiration behind his stage name. “Nas was like my internet alias and then when I started doing music, I was like, ‘I want to have fun with this.
And every new rapper’s named Lil, Lil, Lil. ‘What if I was Lil Nas? That’d be funny. “So I was like, ‘Alright, bet. I’ll be Lil Nas.’ And I added the X later on,” he says.
The Holiday rapper also touched on the origins of his birth name Montero, stating: “It’s slightly embarrassing, but I’m not embarrassed.
My mom wanted the car, the [Mitsubishi] Montero, and she never got one […] so yeah, I’m named after a car.” Later on in the interview, the 21-year-old Grammy winner discussed his new children’s book C is for Country.