Why I Went From 'King Oyin' to 'Ira' to 'Ayra' - Ayra Starr

When you see a picture or video of Ayra Starr today, the name that immediately comes to your mind is of course 'Ayra Starr' because it is how we know her now, and also because the name just makes sense for her. Now, during her interview with Afrobeats Intelligence, Ayra Starr explains how her name actually went from King Oyin to Ira to Ayra, and why. Here is what Ayra Starr had to say.

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During her interview, Ayra Starr was asked "You were singing in school. Your friends, did they have an inkling that you would be a celebrity? Were you marked for being a star?" She said:

AYRA STARR: Definitely! I feel like people believed it before I even did. Like it's so crazy. Like I would just have conversations - I remember this time I was having this conversation with my friend and she was like you know you're going to be a celebrity soon. And we were like 14 and I didn't understand. It's now that I think about it that I'm like why did she think like that? Why did she say that? And everybody just thought it was normal. Everybody just thought like 'oh, it's Oyin na. Oyin is going to blow'. Everybody just knew, I don't know why. I think that's what made me so confident were the people around me.

"Talking about Oyin, I knew about your previous page. Your page was once King Oyin, right? Before you became Ayra Starr, your Instagram was King Oyin and back then, it was surprising when you were finally released and I saw Ayra Starr. You chose the name for the public? What were you calling your self before?"

AYRA STARR: It was just Oyin. Everybody used to call me Oyin, everybody used to call me Oyinkan. Literally until the day I released my EP, my name was Oyin. It became Ayra Starr. Then, someone would say Ayra Starr and I would be looking for Ayra Starr too [laughs]. But I love the name so much. I feel like because of we are Africans, and we are Nigerian. As a Yoruba girl, every Yoruba name means like a prayer or a manifestation. So it was so important for my name to mean something that I want to stand for. Oyin means honey. I love it, I could have also gone by Oyin, but my team when we all sat down and we thought about it. So we got a name called Ira in Yoruba but I knew that Nigerians would not pronounce it as Ayra, they would pronounce it as Ira. So I started praying for a name. I don't even know how it happened but I just decided to Google it one time to check what Ayra meant and Ayra literally means someone that is highly respected, open minded, in Arabic. So it just made sense and that was it.

What do you think of Ayra Starr's different names and about her finally settling on 'Ayra Starr'? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment either below or on my Jide Okonjo Facebook post.

That's All.

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