Tina Knowles-Lawson tells how an inaccurate birth certificate lead to Beyoncé's iconic name

Beyonce and mom Tina Knowles Lawson launch campaign

HOUSTON – Have you ever wondered how pop icon Beyoncé received her name?

Well, her mother Tina Knowles-Lawson shared the story behind the naming of her daughter on the podcast “In My Head With Heather Thomson.”

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She said Beyoncé is actually her maiden named, spelled incorrectly by people that didn’t bother to correct it.

“It’s interesting because a lot of people don’t know that Beyoncé is my last name,” Knowles-Lawson said on the podcast. “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.”

She explained that her last name, B-E-Y-O-N-C-E, is spelled differently than her relatives, who spells it B-E-Y-I-N-C-E.

When she asked her mother why her last name was spelled incorrectly, her mother said that is what they put on the birth certificate.

This discrepancy sent a clear message: her life was less important.

“It was that subliminal message,” she said. "And so I understood that that must have been horrible for her, not to even be able to have her children’s names spelled correctly.”

She continued: “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. So we all have different spellings.”


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