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Tina Knowles-Lawson is disclosing the history behind Beyoncé’s moniker.
While “Beyoncé” is now a nickname that is commonly associated with her famous daughter, the 66-year-old fashion designer and businesswoman discussed the unusual pseudonym during Tuesday’s debut edition of the podcast In My Head with Heather Thomson. She revealed that “Beyoncé” is actually her maiden name.
“A lot of people don’t know that Beyoncé is my last name. It’s my maiden name,” she said. “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.”
The singer Solange’s mother, the matriarch, continued by stating that only a small number of her family members bore the last name “Beyoncé”.
Knowles-Lawson claims that certain people, including her brother and his kids, now go by “Beyoncé” as their last name because of a bureaucratic error.
“I think me and my brother Skip were the only two that had B-E-Y-O-N-C-E,” she said, before explaining why some family members spell the name differently.
“It’s interesting — and it shows you the times — because we asked my mother when I was grown. I was like, ‘Why is my brother’s name spelled B-E-Y-I-N-C-E? You know, it’s all these different spellings,’ ” Knowles-Lawson said. “And my mom’s reply to me was like, ‘That’s what they put on your birth certificate.’ ”
“So I said, ‘Well, why didn’t you argue and make them correct it?’ “The House of Deréon founder continued. “And she said, ‘I did one time. The first time, I was told be happy that you’re getting a birth certificate because, at one time, Black people didn’t get birth certificates.”
