[Detective Conan] I don't get Kaitou Kid's name

[Edmond Dantes]

Okay, so when we first hear of him in the Conan canon (from what I understand the original Magic Kaitou manga doesn't explain this either) he is called "Kaitou 1412"

Kaitou 1412? Were there 1411 Kaitous before him? Or does the number have some other meaning?

Also that number is somehow where the name "Kaitou KID" comes from. Now, I have never seen a way to read Sen-Shi-Hyaku-Juu-Ni that could at all be rendered as "Kid," so what's the deal here? Some alt reading of the kanji, perhaps?

Just hoping someone can clear this up. I tried googling it, but the hits I got only repeated the information--they didn't provide explanations for it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[draewon]

just put the numbers next to each other, 1412 looks like the letter KID

it's not even his real moniker tho, blame Yusaku Kudo for coining that nickname

 

[kuroihikari]

Yep. It's just "KID".

As I remember (as this was decades ago), there was an original thief called Kaito, so when kid first appeared he left a namecard at the scene signed Kaito KID, where the KID was written such that 14 formed K and 12 formed D.