Beyonc’s mother reveals the origin of the pop diva’s name

Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles-Lawson recently opened up on the origin of the singer’s name. In the inaugural episode of the podcast ‘In My Head with Heather Thomson’, Knowles-Lawson revealed that Beyoncé was her maiden name.

The name, which has now become a global handle associated with her daughter, was not cool according to Knowles Lawson. “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,” she said on the podcast.

Tina Knowles-Lawson, 66, added that she wanted her name to be Linda Smith, as those were the cool names then.

The fashion designer also spoke about how not many people in the family had the correct surname due to a clerical error. Knowles-Lawson said that most of the people in her family had the last name Beyincé, but she and her brother had the right one.

Tina Knowles-Lawson is a fashion designer who is famous for House of Deréon. She was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1954 and is the last of seven siblings. She took on a different surname when she married Beyoncé’s father and former manager Mathew Knowles. The couple split in 2009 after more than three decades together and finalized their divorce in 2011.