Blue Ivy Carter
Jay-Z actually had a different name for his daughter
Blue Ivy Carter with her father Jay-Z at the Super Bowl in February 2023.
© IMAGO/UPI Photo
Babies look really tiny on ultrasound pictures: This fact inspired Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé to name their daughter.
“She was actually supposed to be called Brooklyn,” Jay-Z said in an interview when asked how his daughter got her name. As “CBS Mornings” host Gayle King mentioned, the rumor is that because blue is Jay-Z’s favorite color, she has a different name instead. “I wish it was that easy,” the rapper then explains and tells the true story behind the name.
“Look at the little blueberry”
Brooklyn was the first name he and his wife Beyoncé chose for their first child. But when they got the ultrasound pictures, they saw how small their child was. They then started calling her “Blueberry”: “Look at the little blueberry.” At first it was simply a nickname. “We said that for nine months, so it became something completely natural. Then we just left out the berry and called it Blue.”
He also revealed how proud he was of his daughter’s musical development. He watched “with goosebumps” as Blue Ivy faced the crowd on her mother’s world tour despite being very nervous. “She was born into a life she didn’t ask for. Since she was born, she’s been under scrutiny and in the public eye and everyone has an opinion about it,” said Jay-Z. She trained hard with the dancers for her performances on stage. “She really wanted to go through with it.” The song “My Power” was played during her performance: “You can’t write a better script.”
Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter have two other children in addition to Blue Ivy: the twins Sir and Rumi were born in 2017.