Sean Combs Kills A Rumor: He's Still 'Diddy,' Won't Be 'Puffy' Again

What's in a name? Apparently enough that rumors that Sean Combs might change his again are worth releasing a rumor-killing statement.

The founder of Bad Boy Records and the Sean John urban fashion line recently cleared up rumors that he would once again be adopting the nickname "Puffy" soon. In fact, a Combs representative called the rumors "completely untrue" after the New York Daily News reported earlier this week that talk made the rounds during a Los Angeles party celebrating Mazzucco's new photo-art book Culo that Combs would be once more adopting the moniker.

Combs didn't attend the party, reportedly due to concerns that attending the swank affair wouldn't appear appropriate after attending late rapper and friend Heavy D's funeral.

As with many rappers and professional wrestlers and even some actors, referring to Combs by his birth name might come across a little confusing and even downright awkward.

"Puff" or "Puffy" was actually a childhood name that earned because he would huff and "puff" when angry, as he's explained in a USA Today interview. That morphed into "Puff Daddy" during his hip-hop career's early days, because "Daddy" was a slang substitute for "Playa," according to a chat he once had with Ellen DeGeneres.

After he was acquitted in 2001 on gun-possession and bribery charges, he changed his nickname to "P. Diddy" while working on a gospel album called Thank You.

Finally, on Aug. 16, 2005, he appeared on NBC's "The Today Show" and announced that he would just be "Diddy" because "The 'P' was getting between me and my fans."

Don't ask. That statement makes not much more sense now than it did then.

In reality, it's really just another example of something the "Seinfeld" proved conclusively more than a decade ago: you can't choose your own nickname. Or rather, it proves that some people really just shouldn't try to do so.