The Turtle Hat went through multiple alliterations before reaching its current state as a turtle hat. This was to avoid copyright issues, as alluded by the item description. The first version of the item was the Nyan Hat, released March 7, 2013. The hat was based on the popular Nyan Cat Internet meme, a video featuring a flying cat with the body of a Pop-Tart and trailing a rainbow behind it. When worn by a player, the hat would make a rainbow trail behind the player, much like in the video.