Chad Johnson Details 'Ochocinco' Origin Story, How The Name Evolved

Johnson broke it all down with Shannon Sharpe.

CINCINNATI — Former Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson recently dove into his famous name change with Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay.

Johnson legally changed his name to "Chad Ochocinco" in 2008 after thinking of the name during the NFL's Spanish Heritage month.

"So I had the equipment manager create the velcro and Spanish Heritage Month obviously is the month of September in the NFL," Johnson said. "I went out there with that on the jersey. Carson (Palmer) rips it off before the game starts. We were playing the Atlanta Falcons—I'll never forget—Michael Vick. The league office fined me the following morning $30,000. Like 30 grand for altering the NFL uniform? So my stick back to the NFL as an F-you, no disrespect to Goodell—you know we are good now. I changed my name purposely in the offseason.

Johnson didn't put the "Ochocinco" moniker on his NFL uniform regularly until the 2009 season.

"So now I put it on all my jerseys. Since y'all want to be rude and mean. Now at that time, it was a stick to the NFL. Then it just turned into a whole brand right at that point. And I just played it off, like it was marketing, and it worked just as that would."

Sharpe had a great follow-up to the tale.

"Does the future wife call you? Does she call you Chad Ocho?"

"No she calls me Daddy," Johnson quipped.

Check out the full exchange.

Chad Johnson changed his name to @ochocinco to stick it to the NFL for fining him $30K 😂 pic.twitter.com/IgQAHbi3Su

— Club Shay Shay (@ClubShayShay) February 1, 2023

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