Doja Cat is an American rapper, singer, record producer, and songwriter. Her real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini. She began posting videos about making music on the streaming service SoundCloud. Soon after, she was noticed and signed by RCA Records and Kemosabe in 2013. Her first EP ‘Purr’ and debut album ‘Amala’ were not memorable, but her 2018 single ‘Mooo!’ became a viral hit and inspired countless memes online. Doja Cat’s second album ‘Hot Pink’ was released in 2019 and she became a viral sensation. ‘Say So’ from the sophomore album went on to top the Billboard 100 chart. Doja Cat’s third studio album ‘Planet Her’ cemented her as one of the best singers right now with many hit singles like ‘Woman’ and ‘Kiss Me More’.
She has won many accolades such as a Grammy Award, five AMAs, three MTV Video Music Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards. Doja Cat is known for making very creative music videos with high production value which go viral on social media. Throughout her career, fans have often wondered about her ethnicity and her name. Read on to learn more about her name, stage name, and more.
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Meaning Behind Doja Cat’s Name
Doja Cat’s real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini. Her name Amala means someone who is pure, clean, and full of hope. The word Amala is Arabic in origin. Ratna means ‘a jewel’ or ‘a gem’. The word has Sanskrit origins. So together her real name means a pure jewel.
Doja Cat is Amala’s stage name. The name Doja Cat is derived from both her favorite marijuana strain and one of her cats. She said while talking about her name, “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.”
Amala has also mentioned her fans’ input for the name. She said, “It was a joke between me and my fans, we started it on Instagram Live, just me and 60 other people, and we all had fun coming up with puns and metaphors.”
Though recently the rapper has revealed an aversion to the name. She said that she was unhappy with the image that the name associated with her. She hated the persona and the name attached to her. Amala said, “My image was the pothead hippie girl, and I’m not that.”
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Doja Cat’s Ethnicity, Roots And Childhood
Amala was born in Los Angeles, California to Deborah Sawyer and Dumisani Dlamini on October 21, 1995. Her mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Whereas her father is from South Africa and is Zulu in descent. Hence, Doja Cat is half-American Ashkenazi Jewish and half South African.
Her father left the family to return to South Africa because of homesickness. Hence, Amala maintains that she had no relationship with her father and that she is estranged from him. But the rapper’s father claims that he still has a very good relationship with his daughter and that he wasn’t absent.
When Amala was still a child, she lived for five years with her maternal grandmother in Rye, New York. Then at the age of eight, she along with her mother and brother lived at Sai Anantam Ashram and practiced Hinduism for many years. The Hindu culture has inspired many of her works in her future musical career. The family then moved back to California and lived in Oak Park where she went from Bharatnatyam to Breakdancing. She then joined a dancing troupe and started taking singing lessons. She had a difficult childhood but did not let that stop her from pursuing her dream.
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