Tina Knowles and Ex-Husband Mathew Knowles Reunited at Book Tour
Beyonce’s Name Is a Beautiful Mistake
Speaking of Angie Beyince, Tina’s niece ended up with that last name because Tina and her siblings all spelled their last name differently. It just so happened that Tina’s birth certificate read “Celestine Ann Beyonce.”
Which, Tina recalled in Matriarch, she wanted to change. Sitting with her brother Larry one night as he did his homework, she wrote, “I said I wanted to practice my own name, so he let me borrow his pencil and said each letter for me.” When they got to her last name, Larry had to think for a second.
“He reminded me that all of us kids had difference spellings of our parents’ last name, Buyince,” she wrote. “There was Beyince, Boyance, and mine, Beyonce.”
When she demanded that her mother Agnez do something about her misspelled birth certificate, Tina continued, “I was told, ‘Be happy that you’re getting a birth certificate.’ Because, at one time, Black people didn’t even get birth certificates.” Besides, Agnez added, “‘Your name is beautiful.'”
Obviously the name grew on her, because Tina named her eldest child Beyonce. Tina’s eldest child was named
Beyonce01001010. “Our history. It was the most precious possession I owned, and now it’s mine to give. “I’ve kept the word going.”
