Beyoncé Mother's Maiden Name Is Beyoncé

It is not unusual for a parent to name their children after them. However, it is usually their first name. There is something unique about Beyoncé's name. It is her first name, but it is also her mother's maiden name. Another thing about the name is that Tina Knowles Lawson did not like Beyoncé as her last name.

During an interview Tina admitted, “A lot of people don’t know that Beyoncé is my maiden name.” The 66-year-old mother of Beyoncé and Solange said on the first episode of the In My Head with Heather Thomson podcast, “My name was Celestine Beyoncé, which at that time was not a cool name to have.

Tina added that several family members have Beyoncé as their last name with different spellings. For instance, it was spelled incorrectly on her brother's birth certificate. When it was brought to the attention of officials, they refused to change it. Her brother Skip bears the last name Beyince. When Tina's mother tried to get a new birth certificate issued, she was told to be thankful for the one she was getting. At that time, Black folks weren't given birth certificates as readily as they are given today. Tina's mother is Lumis Beyincé and Beyoncé's cousin and best friend is Angie Beyince.

Reason for Beyoncé's Name

Tina said she gave her first daughter her last name because she believed there weren’t enough men to carry on the family’s surname. Therefore, she let her daughter take it as her first name.

The businesswoman and fashion designer's first name is not really Tina. It is the short form of Christine. She was given the name Christina Ann Beyoncé at birth. She was the last of seven siblings whose last name is also Beyonce without the accent mark. Whether it is with or without the accent mark, it means “beyond others.”

Beyoncé's parents, Tina and Mathew Knowles divorced in 2011. Mathew's name seems to be missing a "t" because most of the time Matthew is spelled with two "t's."

The Name

Beyoncé is a name that is recognizable by millions of people. She is known as one of the most successful artists in the world. She is more than a triple threat because she is a singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actress, businesswoman, and director. Her name is so unique that people simply know her by her first name only. There really is no need to use her full name which is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.

Popularity of the Name

Beyoncé’s name came from her mother’s surname, which was an uncommon name and not a popular name to have when Tina was born. In fact, Tina called it "weird" when it was her maiden name.

More parents are giving their baby girls that name now because of Beyoncé’s popularity and influence. When Tina gave her first daughter the name Beyoncé little did she know at the time that her daughter would become so famous that she would be known worldwide by her first name only like Oprah and Cher. Neither did she know that other parents would give their little girls that name.

The Social Security Administration tracks the popularity of baby names with at least five occurrences a year by gender and have found that Beyoncé first appeared on the charts in 1999 with 18 baby girls. In 2001, the popularity of Beyoncé as a name for baby girls skyrocketed with 353 occurrences that year. Today, there are almost 2,000 females named “Beyoncé.” They are mostly girls born between 2000 and 2004 when Beyoncé was a member and rising star of the singing group, Destiny's Child.

Others With Mother's Maiden Name

Holly Robinson Peete, actress and singer, known mostly for her reality show Meet the Peetes, gave one of her sons her maiden name as his first name. Robinson Peete is one of the Peete's four children.

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had his mother's maiden name as his middle name. His mother was Rose Fitzgerald before she married Joseph Kennedy in 1914. This writer gave her only son her maiden name for his middle name.