What is Beyoncé's real name?

The Origins of the Music Mogul's Moniker

Beyonce Knowles holding Grammy awards
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Beyoncé's full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter. Her first name is a tribute to mother Tina Knowles' French maiden name Beyincé, pronounced "bay-EN-say." Tina didn't think there were enough men in the Beyincé family to keep the surname going, so she adapted it and made it her daughter's first name.

Nicknames: Queen B, Bee, JuJu, Mothe, Sasha Fierce

Popularity of the Name Beyoncé

The Social Security Administration records popularity data for names that have more than five occurrences per gender. The name Beyoncé first appeared on the baby name radar in 1999. Only 18 baby girls were named Beyoncé that year, but popularity surged just a few years later in 2001: 353 baby girls were given the name.

2001 is the same year Destiny's Child released their third album, Survivor, which thrust Beyoncé into the spotlight. The name experienced another upswing in 2003, which coincided with the release of her first solo album, Dangerously in Love. 206 girls were named Beyoncé that year. She starred in the blockbuster film "Dreamgirls," which opened in December 2006. The following year, 185 girls were named Beyoncé.​

According to the Social Security Administration, there are now nearly 2,000 women named Beyoncé in the United States, most of whom are between ages 10 and 15. More than half who share the name were born between 2000 and 2004.

The popularity of the name has dropped off each year since, but Beyoncé incited another baby name trend when she gave birth to daughter Blue Ivy.

Beyonce's Daughter Blue Ivy

Beyoncé gave birth to daughter Blue Ivy Carter on January 7, 2012, with husband Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter. While the meaning of their daughter's name has never been confirmed, there are a few theories:

  • Blue is Jay Z's favorite color, hence his Blueprint albums. He also refers to it in several lyrics, including the song "Go Crazy," in which he says "my favorite hue is Jay Z blue." The name isn't an extraordinarily unique choice, however. Many celebrities have used variations of the name Blue, including John Travolta and Kelly Preston (daughter Ella Bleu) and Alicia Silverstone (son Bear Blu).
  • Beyoncé posted an excerpt from the 2005 Rebecca Solnit novel "A Field Guide to Getting Lost" on her Tumblr. The paragraph addresses the significance of the color blue and states that "the world is blue at its edges and it its depths... the blue at the farthest reaches of the places where you see for miles, the blue of distance."
  • Ivy may be a take on the Roman numeral IV. The number four is significant to Beyoncé and Jay Z. They wed on April 4 (4/4), their birthdays are September 4 (Beyoncé) and December 4 (Jay Z), and Beyoncé's fourth studio album is titled 4.

Jay-Z trademarked his daughter's name shortly after birth.

Blue hasn't become a widely popular choice for a first name, but Ivy has. It's been a steady choice over the decades, but the name's popularity rose in 2012, the year Blue Ivy was born. According to Social Security Administration data, more than 4,000 baby girls were named Ivy between 2013 and 2014.