How did Doja Cat make up her stage name?

Doja Cat complains about the behavior of her fans. Screenshot.

The creation of her stage name is a short story! But we have it from the woman herself. According to Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, her real name, she made up her stage name, Doja Cat, because she loves cats and cannabis! In her own words:

"I was heavily addicted to weed and weed culture, so when I began rapping, I thought of the word ‘doja’ and how it sounds like a girl’s name."

At the time she admits that she was "an alcoholic teen". I wonder if she has changed her thoughts about her name bearing in mind what I say below.

LinkedIn says:

In an interview with Genius, she revealed that "doja" is a slang term that means marijuana. She explained that the name was given to her as a tribute to the weed culture, which is prevalent in Los Angeles, where she grew up. As a teenager, Doja Cat was exposed to the weed culture and became fascinated by it.

That's the origin have her name and I have a follow-up story to it. 

Separately, Doja Cat has hit out at some of her fans. She's not happy with the way they are supporting her.

She took aim at her fans on the social media app Threads, which is a new Facebook Twitter-like social media platform.

Some of her fans use the nickname "Kittenz". It describes a fan community but, as mentioned, she doesn't like it. She said:

“My fans don’t get to name themselves s***. If you call yourself a ‘Kitten’ or f***ing ‘Kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.”

Very strong words as you can see. She is obviously confident that she can retain fan support even if she criticises them heavily.

There is a Twitter tweet on the topic about her supporters calling themselves "Kittenz".

Doja Cat’s top fan pages are deactivating their accounts after she criticized supporters for calling themselves 'Kittenz'. pic.twitter.com/Zy54M3y2ZS

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 23, 2023

For those people who have not heard of Doja Cat, here is a very brief resume. She was born on October 21, 1995. She is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud. She earned viral success as an Internet meme with her 2018 single-a novelty song-called "Mooo!".