Beyoncé may be one of the most famous names in the world, but it’s actually a family moniker. Tina Knowles-Lawson, the mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, opened up about the origins of her eldest’s daughter’s name in a recent podcast interview, revealing it’s actually her maiden name.
“A lot of people don’t know that Beyoncé is my last name. It’s my maiden name,” Tina revealed on the In My Head With Heather Thomson podcast. “My name was Celestine Beyoncé, which at that time was not a cool thing to have that weird name. I wanted my name to be Linda Smith because those were the cool names.”
Tina, who was the youngest of seven kids, noted that her siblings had different spellings of their last name.
“All of us have a different spelling. I think me and my brother, Skip, were the only two that had B-E-Y-O-N-C-E,” Tina said.
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She added that other siblings had the name spelled “B-E-Y-I-N-C-E.” When she asked her mother why the names were different, she replied that that’s what was put on their birth certificate.
“So I said, ‘Well, why didn’t you argue and make them correct it?’ And she said, ‘I did one time, the first time, and I was told be happy that you’re getting a birth certificate,'” she said. “Because at one time Black people didn’t get birth certificates.”
Tina went on to praise her two daughters for their charitable efforts, which she said they often do privately.
“[I get] upset when [Beyoncé] gets all this criticism, because she’s not the person and Solange is not the person to go and brag about what they do,” Tina explained. “They just do it because it was instilled in them at nine and four to give back, to treat people with dignity, to appreciate and respect people that have less than you.”
