Why Beyoncé Is Called Beyoncé, According To Her Mother Tina
Never heard the name Beyoncé until a 17-year-old Texan burst onto the scene as a quarter of Destiny's Child with 'No No No'? Us neither.
And now, Tina Knowles-Lawson - mother to the 39-year-old 'Survivor' singer and younger popstar daughter Solange - has explained the meaning behind the name, providing the fascinating, rich and complicated history which inspired the choice of moniker for her first born daughter.
Speaking on the Spotify podcast, In My Head With Heather Thompson, Tina revealed to her stylist friend that Beyoncé's name came from Tina's maiden name.
'A lot of people don't know that Beyoncé is my last name, it's my maiden name,' the mother-of-two revealed adding that her full name is Celestine Beyoncé - where Tina is derived from.
The House of Derion founder, who was born in Galveston Texas in 1954, added that it was 'not a cool thing' to have that name, alluding to the ongoing racial segregation and discrimination when she was a child, saying she would have preferred her name at the time to be 'Linda Smith.'
Tina explained that her six siblings do not have the same spelling of her maiden name and it was just her and one brother which had the spelling we all know: B-e-y-o-n-c-é, the other siblings had their surname spelt B-e-y-i-n-c-e.
'It's interesting and it shows you the times because we asked my mother when I was grown, "why is my brother's name spelt B-e-y-i-n-c-e?"... My mum's reply to me was, "that's what they put on your birth certificate." I said, "Why didn't you argue and make them correct it?" and she said she did the first time and was told, "Be happy that you're getting a birth certificate because at one time Black people didn't get birth certificates... because it meant that you really didn't exist and you weren't important."
'It was that subliminal message and so I understood that must have been horrible for her not to be able to have her children's names spelled correctly.'
A post shared by Tina Knowles (@mstinalawson) on Sep 10, 2020 at 4:01pm PDT
Tina added that the name is French creole descended: 'It was an odd name, a weird name, and they were like, "How dare you have a French name? We're going to screw this up real good for you" and that's what they did so we all have different spellings.'
Beyoncé's full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, adding her husband Jay-Z's surname to her name after their 2008 nuptials. Solange's full name is Solange Piaget Knowles.
Tina tends to go by her surname Lawson or hyphenate Knowles-Lawson, after her 2011 divorce from Beyoncé and Solange's father Matthew Knowles and her subsequent marriage to American actor Richard Lawson in 2015.
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