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Fame Burst

The Untold Truth Of Donald Glover

Author

David Edwards

Updated on March 08, 2026

When Donald Glover started making mixtapes, he released them under the rap name Childish Gambino. It's a colorful moniker, to be sure. But what does it mean? Glover explained on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" that he acquired the name from the Wu-Tang Clan Name Generator

"We were all hanging out, chilling and drinking and then we were like, 'oh, Wu-Tang name generator, let's put our name in," he told Fallon. "And we're putting them all in, and they're all funny and stuff, and then mine came up and I was like, 'you guys, it's not funny anymore. This is something big.' I just really liked it."

But what does it mean? In a 2011 Fuse interview, Glover recalled a conversation he had with Wu-Tang's RZA, who apparently had some valuable insight: "He's like, 'Yo, it's like that computer had a brain! It's like you're childish ... but you could also murder someone!" Glover was quick to point out that he wouldn't ever commit murder, instead summing it all up by saying, "For me, it's kind of just like silliness and kind of seriousness."