Jimmy Donaldson Started Calling Himself MrBeast For a Pretty Random Reason

For the first 20 years of his life, Jimmy Donaldson was just a regular guy. Now, he's MrBeast, one of the most well-known creators on the internet and the man with the most popular YouTube channel.

Given the tremendous amount of success that Jimmy has achieved under his YouTube name, many wanted to know where the name originally came from. While it's certainly hooked plenty of people, you might be surprised at how simple the origin story is. Here's what we know about where Jimmy got the name.

In a documentary posted to CuriosityStream, Jimmy gave some fans a look at what his life was like before he was insanely famous. The documentary, called Beyond the Spotlight, explains that Jimmy was a shy kid who didn't have many friends growing up and that he spent a lot of time watching YouTube as a result. Ava Kris Tyson, one of his oldest friends, bonded with him primarily over their shared love for the platform.

Jimmy eventually made his own channel, and he got the name for that channel from XBox, of all places.

“When you create an account on Xbox, they have this thing where it just gives you a random gamer tag. And I was just like ‘MrBeast’, this sounds cool!” he explained. Jimmy took a name that was autogenerated by a piece of Microsoft software, and he turned it into one of the biggest brands in the world.

While the name may have been selected for him at random, it seems to fit the world-eating channel that he has become. MrBeast is, in many ways, a formidable beast, and his enormous success seems to back up the name that he gave himself, even if it was a little random when he first selected it. Regardless of his reasons, though, it's been catchy enough to make him an enormous success.

MrBeast's name has been in the news in July of 2024 for less positive reasons. Ava announced that she would be leaving the channel after she was accused of grooming a minor.

“I would like to apologize for any of my past behavior or comments if it hurt or offended anyone. It was not my intent,” Ava wrote.

"Seeing recent events, we’ve mutually decided it’s best I permanently step away from all things MrBeast and social media to focus on my family and mental health," she continued.

MrBeast also condemned the remarks himself, saying that the allegations were unacceptable.

"Over the last few days, I’ve become aware of the serious allegations of Ava Tyson's behavior online and I am disgusted and opposed to such unacceptable acts. During that time, I have been focused on hiring an independent third party to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure I have all the facts," he wrote.

"I do not condone or support any of the inappropriate actions," he added.