Where are you from? 

I am from Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

Where do you live now? 

I live in Sunset Parks, Brooklyn, New York City, New York. 

What is your name? 

Derrius. 

What is the meaning behind your name? 

The way that I got my name is that my mom is always like, it's Darius from the Bible, but my dad just spelled it phonetically. So I guess the Bible story is true. Because in the Bible, there's like the story of Daniel and the lions, and then the king of Persia at the time is like King Darius. So he's the one that evangelizes all of Persia to be a Christian because Daniel doesn't get eaten by the lions. 

Have you ever changed your name?

I've always been Darius, but I did start changing the way I say my last name, which is Rahman. Growing up, I used to always say things like Darius Ramen. Because even though my dad would say it's Rahman, you are Rahman. We weren't really close, so I would always do ramen. And even now, sometimes if I'm on the phone with somebody, I would say ramen. But now I'm in New York, enough people know Arabic, or Arabic sounding names. Like, I can just say my name as it is intended to be said. 

Is there a difference between both sides of your family? Especially the religious aspect of your family? 

I would say my mom's side of the family is very Christian. Like, almost like Christian conservative moment. Like they celebrate Easter and go to church on Christmas, but they're not super religious. But on my dad's side of the family, I'm pretty sure my grandfather was Muslim. And my grandmother is Muslim. So she practices Islam. And she's like a devout Muslim woman, but my dad himself is not Muslim. He is a Christian. But it's interesting because even within that dynamic, because his mom was his mom and his dad were both Muslim, we have like, we'll greet each other, as-salamu alaykum, I know the basics. We still have that connection to the religion, even though we don't. 

Do you have a nickname?

I have a couple, my family calls me Dare Bear. And then like when I was in high school, my friends used to always call me D-Rah, that's like the beginning and the last part of my name, or Dara, because that was my Instagram, my Twitter app for a while. And well, I think it's really the only time a girl I thought was cute was like, have you ever gone by Day Day? And I should have. That is a cute one. I like Day Day. But everybody knows Day Day and they're always troublemakers. I feel like that's not me.

How do you navigate your daily life with your name?

Obviously growing up, nobody had the same name as me. And there were not a lot of Darius. So I was like, okay, the way I pronounced it was even different. And I noticed now, especially being in New York, I will really try Derrius, so all the syllables are known because you know it's so busy. If I just like sometimes if I just say Derrius, people will put Darius, or whatever. And it doesn't really bother me, it's not like the craziest thing in the world. So I feel like being in New York, I have fully enunciated my full name. Like I said earlier about saying my last name when I'm on the phone with government officials or doing an order like I'll say the Arabic pronunciation of my last name, as opposed to like frightening it. I think a lot of names within the Black community and Asian community people specifically, when people see it they're like okay I know whose name is it or they have a judgment of what, who's like race or culture is tied to that. I have always wondered what my name looks like on applications.

Do you resonate with your given name for children? 

Yeah, I resonate. I feel like even the little meanings online, I feel like when I was younger I was thinking nobody has it spelled the way I have it spelled, like, I'm a diva. 

How do you name yourself in the digital world? 

I feel like I'm always trying to shorten my name online. In every iteration, I've tried to make my name like fun or cute. I guess it's like a callback, in high school people would like to say D-Russ. I don't know where that came from. But that's my Instagram handle right now. It's like d.r.u.s. And then my Twitter right now, I changed recently from D.R.A.W. like I changed within the last year to dersdigest. I feel like my want is to always name myself online in a way that could be connected to like, not a product, but like a brand. So like dersdigest, like that was going to be the name of my blog. That's why I changed my Twitter account to that name. I have had problems in the past with digital naming where I've had to put like a 22 or like a number associated and I hate that. 

Is there a difference between naming yourself in different social media platforms? 

I feel like other spaces like League of Legends or like Reddit, I wouldn't put my real name, but like those are definitely more consumption based things like I'm just like a persona in the space there. But then my Instagram, I don't think I'll ever change my Instagram to dersdigest, I just feel like Instagram is a personal thing.