The Surprisingly Racist Origin Of Beyoncé's Name

The name Beyoncé is known the world over as the moniker of one of the most important and beloved artists of the 21st century (and, dare we say, all time). It’s a name that has become synonymous with excellence and empowerment — but it has a surprisingly personal, and even painful, history.

Appearing on the podcast In My Head with Heather Thomson, Tina Knowles-Lawson, mother of Bey and Solange, explained exactly where her eldest daughter’s name originated: from her! She revealed:

“A lot of people don’t know that Beyoncé is my last name. It’s my maiden name. 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.”

No offense to all the Lindas out there, but we think Celestine actually has a leg up in cool factor here. Still, we can’t discount the racist way people react to names that sound different or “foreign.” In fact, racism played an even deeper part in the surname.

Most members of the Beyhive probably already knew Beyoncé was Tina’s maiden name. But the 66-year-old shared that of her seven siblings, only two of them had that particular spelling of the name. She said:

“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,’ And my mom’s reply to me was like, ‘That’s what they put on your birth certificate.'”

Knowles-Lawson, who is currently fighting for the passage of the HEROES Act to provide COVID-19 relief as well as fight against voter suppression in Black communities, expressed her disbelief at the reasoning. She continued:

“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.’ Because at one time Black people didn’t get birth certificates.”

Yep. Some racist clerk is the reason the Queen is named Beyoncé and not… Beyincé.

The House of Deréon designer recalled that growing up in Galveston, Texas in the ’50s and ’60s there was “a lot of segregation.” Apparently, that racism touched her life from the very day she was born. She explained:

“They didn’t even have a birth certificate, because it meant that you really didn’t exist, you know, you weren’t important. It was that subliminal message. So I understood that that must have been horrible for her not to even have been able to have her children’s names spelled correctly. [It] was an odd name, it was a weird name, and they were like ‘How dare you have a French name!’ Like, ‘We’re gonna screw this up real good for you.’’And that’s what they did.”

What an incredible story — what began as a racist clerical error later became one of the most revered names in pop culture. Momma Tina reclaimed a painful part of her family’s history and turned it into something beautiful and unstoppable. We always thought she was powerful, but this definitely proves it!

[Image via Beyoncé/YouTube & WENN/Avalon]