Alexis Ohanian has revealed that Reddit’s name was widely mocked when he first proposed it in 2005.
The Reddit co-founder, now 42, explained in an October 22 post on X that he used his “CEO-privilege” to overrule colleagues who called it a “horrible name.” The disclosure came after Reddit’s official account posted a pun that unknowingly echoed his original vision for the brand.
Ohanian’s post was sparked by a joke from Reddit’s corporate account: “I’d tell you a joke, but you’ve probably already Reddit.” He noted that the social media team had made the reference without knowing the full backstory.
“21 years ago I named ‘Reddit’ and everyone said it was a horrible name,” he wrote on X. “I had a vision: ‘I read it on Reddit.'”
The entrepreneur elaborated that he had anticipated people adopting the phrase as they shared information discovered on the platform. He added that he had deployed his executive authority to push the name through despite the internal opposition.
The naming saga stretches back to Ohanian’s time as a University of Virginia student alongside co-founder Steve Huffman. The pair, who were college roommates, developed the site as a community-driven platform where users could submit links, vote on content, and discuss topics without traditional editorial gatekeepers.
Ohanian had previously detailed the naming process on his personal blog. He recalled that the idea came to him while studying at Alderman Library, though he credited “PG” — Y Combinator founder Paul Graham — with coining the “I reddit on reddit” slogan formulation.
“I was in my beloved Alderman library when ‘reddit’ came to mind, as in ‘I reddit on reddit’ (although this slogan was courtesy of PG),” he wrote on his blog. “I’d also registered reditt because I couldn’t decide which one was better. Granted, I was worried about how poorly it was spelled, but it seemed easy enough to remember.”
He continued: “For a time, it was just added to a long list of potential names. We spent the first month of YC without a confirmed name, but I always stuck with reddit despite being repeatedly told how terrible a name it was:-)”
The indecision cost them productive hours. “Finally Steve acquiesced and we went with reddit,” Ohanian noted. “This was after wasting a solid 2 entire days just hunting for domains — not a great use of time, I must say.”
Ohanian registered the domain in April 2005. The site launched that June as part of Y Combinator’s inaugural startup batch. Condé Nast acquired Reddit just a year later in 2006. Ohanian eventually returned as executive chairman before resigning from the board in 2020, and the platform went public in March 2024.
The recent X exchange has drawn fresh attention to a decision made when Reddit was still an unproven startup, long before it became one of the internet’s most visited platforms.