Kekius Maximus: Why Elon Musk Changed His Name on X

On December 31, 2024, Elon Musk changed his X display name to “Kekius Maximus” and his profile picture to Pepe the Frog in Roman armor, holding a game controller. The name blends “kek”, gamer slang for “lol”, with Maximus, the hero of the film Gladiator. Two days later he switched back to his real name. In the meantime a memecoin with the same name had jumped more than 3,000%, and the link to his Path of Exile 2 character ended in a controversy. The episode also shows what a simple profile change triggers on X, including for an account like yours: if you want weight on the platform, a base of X followers is still the first lever.

What exactly happened at the end of 2024?

On Tuesday, December 31, 2024, Elon Musk’s X account changed its display name to “Kekius Maximus”. The profile picture followed: Pepe the Frog in a legionary’s helmet and armor, holding a controller. Musk gave no official explanation. He only posted a hint: “Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE” (Newsweek, December 31, 2024). PoE is Path of Exile 2, a role-playing game that entered early access in early December 2024.

On Thursday, January 2, 2025, Musk went back to his usual name and photo. The whole thing lasted barely 48 hours, which was enough to go around the world. Some articles date it to December 2025. That’s wrong: it all happened over the 2024 to 2025 New Year.

French news channel BFMTV covered the crypto angle on January 2:

@bfmtv

Le milliardaire a généré une forte spéculation en se renommant “Kekius Maximus” sur X #musk #crypto #x

♬ son original – BFMTV

What does “Kekius Maximus” mean?

The name stitches together three pieces of internet culture.

“Kek”, the gamers’ laugh

In World of Warcraft, when a Horde player types “lol”, Alliance players see “kek”. The word moved to forums like 4chan, where it stands in for “lol”. By coincidence, Kek is also the name of an Egyptian deity of darkness, sometimes shown with a frog’s head. Forums turned that into a running joke with Pepe, who is also a frog.

“Maximus”, the gladiator

Maximus Decimus Meridius is the hero of Gladiator (2000), played by Russell Crowe: a betrayed Roman general who becomes a gladiator. The Latin “-ius” ending and the avatar’s armor point straight at the film. Newsweek and Fortune both made the connection on December 31, 2024.

The game character

Kekius_Maximus was also the name of Musk’s character in Path of Exile 2. The controller in the avatar and the level 80 post point to this lead, the most concrete of the three.

Why is Pepe the Frog controversial?

Pepe was born in 2005 in Boy’s Club, a comic by American artist Matt Furie, as a laid-back, easygoing character. He became a global meme, then was co-opted from 2015 onward by American far-right activists. In September 2016, the Anti-Defamation League added him to its hate symbols database, while noting that most uses of Pepe have nothing extremist about them.

That double meaning is what caused the reaction. For some commentators the avatar was just a gamer’s wink. Fast Company, in its piece on the episode, read it instead as one more sign of Musk aligning with Donald Trump’s most radical base, at a time when he was one of Trump’s closest allies. I found no response from Musk to these readings. I’m giving you both, without deciding for him.

The KEKIUS memecoin: up 3,000%, then down 83%

A crypto token called Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) already existed on Ethereum. It had no connection to Musk. According to Decrypt, its market cap went from $12.7 million to nearly $400 million in 30 hours, more than 3,000%. When Musk took his name back, the token lost 83% in ten hours.

The figures vary depending on when outlets published: Yahoo reported +500%, Newsweek +700%. The mechanism doesn’t change. Buyers bet on a supposed signal from Musk, early arrivals sell, latecomers lose. Musk never promoted the token, and no outlet has tied him to its creators.

7NEWS Australia’s report, aired the same day, shows the avatar in question:

@7newsaustralia

Elon Musk has changed his name to ‘Kekius Maximus’ on his social media platform, X, and replaced his avatar with a picture of Pepe the Frog. #elon #elonmusk #twitter #socialmedia #pepe #pepethefrog #billionaire #crypto #cryptocurrency #kekiusmaximus #7NEWS

♬ original sound – 7NEWS Australia – 7NEWS Australia

If you invest, remember this: a display name is not an announcement. Buying a memecoin because a celebrity changed their handle is a coin flip against people faster than you.

Path of Exile 2: the character and the admission

On January 7, 2025, Musk livestreamed a Path of Exile 2 session with his hardcore character Kekius_Maximus. Experienced players quickly spotted a mismatch: the character’s gear was top tier, but Musk seemed shaky on the game’s basics. Forbes reported the “boosting” accusations on January 10, meaning a character leveled up by other players.

Musk denied it at first. Then, on January 18, 2025, YouTuber NikoWrex published, with Musk’s permission, private messages in which Musk admitted using the service. His justification: “It’s impossible to beat the players in Asia if you dont, as they do!” (Forbes, Paul Tassi, January 20, 2025). For many players, that was the end of Kekius Maximus the gamer.

What came next in 2025?

Musk kept playing with his display name. On February 11, 2025, he renamed himself “Harry Bōlz”, a schoolboy pun. An opportunistic memecoin on Solana immediately jumped 33,500% to a $20 million market cap before falling back (Decrypt, AMBCrypto). Same script, smaller scale.

In March 2025, his artificial intelligence company xAI acquired X, which made his moves on the platform carry even more weight. Kekius Maximus stuck around as a meme of its own: it comes back as a reaction image every time Musk changes his profile.

Changing your name on X: what it triggers for your account

You don’t have 200 million followers, but X’s rule applies to you too. According to X’s Help Center, changing your profile photo, display name or @handle temporarily removes the blue checkmark from a Premium account while a team checks that the account still meets the requirements. During that review, which can take several business days, no further changes are allowed.

Before changing your identity on X, follow this order:

1. Prepare everything at once: new name, new photo and new bio, so you only trigger one review.
2. Keep your @ if you can: the display name can change without breaking links and mentions, the @ can’t.
3. Tell your audience: a pinned post explaining the change keeps you from looking hacked or like an impersonator.
4. Watch your stats for a week: a new look can lower recognition in the feed.

And if you want your new identity to get noticed fast, a post that starts with a few X likes or retweets is more likely to be pushed into the For You tab.