In the military, a maverick is one who works their way up through the ranks, ultimately ending up as an officer. My father was a “maverick” in the army starting as a buck Private, the lowest rank and retiring as a Colonel.

Generally when someone is called a maverick, they buck the trends. In industry a maverick would start trends rather than follow them.

The term itself could refer to any of the things listed at the site below including semi-wild, unbranded cattle in the Western United States which could mean he sees himself as a wild guy.

But if a 31 year old guy uses it as his nickname it probably more of a homage to Tom Cruise’s character from Top Gun who was nicknamed “Maverick.”

It means…

Woops! There’s my train, gotta run!!!