Tina Knowles-Lawson Explains That “Beyoncé” Is Actually Her Maiden Name
In the first episode of the “In My Head with Heather Thomson” podcast, Tina Knowles-Lawson opened up about a few things including the origin of Beyoncé’s name. During Tuesday’s show, the 66-year-old fashion designer and businesswoman revealed that “Beyoncé” is actually her maiden name.
“A lot of people don’t know that Beyoncé is my last name. It’s my maiden name,” she said. “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,” the matriarch, who is also the mom to singer Solange Knowles, shared.
She went on to explain that various family members have different spellings of the “Beyoncé” last name due to a clerical error.
“I think me and my brother Skip were the only two that had B-E-Y-O-N-C-E,” she said. “And 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? And you know it’s all these different spellings. And my mom’s reply to me and was that’s what they put on your birth certificate. So I said, ‘Well, why didn’t you argue and make them correct it? And she said I did one 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.”
Mrs. Lawson added that it “must’ve been horrible” feeling for her mother to “not to even be able to have her children’s names spelled correctly,” PEOPLE quotes.
As many are aware, she later took on a different surname when she tied the knot to Beyonce and Solange’s father; their former manager, Mathew Knowles. After their divorce in 2011, she then married Richard Lawson in 2015.