Word History: Pop Queen Name Origins

The etymology behind names of celebrated female artists.

CELINE DION
Celine Dion is a descendant of Jean Guyon, a 17th-century settler of French Canada. The surname Guyon derives from an old Germanic word widu, meaning wood or forest. Spellings and pronunciation changes saw the Guyon surname become Dion over the middle ages. Other famous descendants of Jean Guyon are Shania Twain and Alanis Morrissette.

BEYONCE
Beyoncé's name derives from her mother's maiden name, Beyoncé, however her mother's surname should have been Beyincé. A clerical error was blamed for the entry Beyoncé over the correct Beyincé. Attempts to correct the mistake were met with resistance, which Tina Knowles attributed to racism. The name might go back to a French word 'bois' meaning wood.

KYLIE
There is an Irish surname that anglicises as O'Kiely, from which the name Kylie could derive, however in the case of Kylie Minogue, the name choice was likely influenced by an Indigenous Australian word for a boomerang, which somehow crossed cultural barriers to become a popular choice as a girl's name.

MARIAH CAREY
Mariah Carey should really be Mariah Nunez. Her grandfather changed his surname from Nunez to Carey upon immigrating to New York from Venezuela, in hopes of being more readily accepted.

MELANIE B & MELANIE C
These two Spice Girls have names that go back to an ancient Greek word mélas, meaning dark. Mélas is where we get the words melanin and melancholy from. Melanin is the substance that produces hair, eye and skin pigmentation, and melancholy is the feeling of sadness or darkness.

Listen to the Word History podcast Episode 60: Pop Queens.