NCT Dream’s Jisung Explains The Story Behind His Nickname “Gan Jisung”

He also revealed that it was the older members who gave him the nickname in the first place!

NCT Dream‘s maknae Jisung is an absolute cutie to his hyungs, and he recently shared how they gave him the nickname “Gan Jisung” out of sheer adoration!

Jisung | @NCTsmtown_DREAM/Twitter

NCT Dream’s Mark, Renjun, Chenle, and Jisung recently guested on Eric Nam‘s K-Pop Daebak Show, where they talked about their audition processes, early trainee days at SM Entertainment, and more!

(From left to right) Eric Nam, NCT Dream’s Renjun, Chenle, Mark, and Jisung

Each of the members took turns sharing their stories, and when they got to Jisung, the first thing Eric Nam asked him to clarify was the story behind his nickname, “Gan Jisung”!

First, nickname. Your nickname, “Gan Jisung” is what I heard. Was this a name you gave yourself?

—Eric Nam

Jisung then revealed how it was the older members who gave him that nickname during their trainee days, because of the way he used to carry himself at the time! As the youngest, everyone would dote on him and call him cute, but since he wanted to be seen as cool instead, he would go out of his way to act cool, which resulted in the nickname “Gan Jisung”! “Ganji” is a Korean slang term referring to anything that has “swag”, or is cool or stylish, and his hyungs combine the word “ganji” with “Jisung” and began calling him “Gan Jisung”!

Well, at first, during training, I was pretty young and I grew up getting a lot of attention. People always said I was cute, but I honestly wanted to be seen as cool. So I always acted cool and the other guys called me that in a cute way.

The word “ganji” ends with the first letter of my name, and they combined it to be “Gan Jisung”.

—Jisung

While Chenle exclaimed that he’s never heard of this name before, Eric Nam told him that the name totally suits him, somehow!

I think it fits you!

—Eric Nam

And we agree, because Jisung’s definitely both cool and cute!

Watch him talk about it here!

NCT