R+B sensation Beyonce Knowles is proud of her unique name, but it caused a little controversy in her family when her mother decided on it.

In 1981, while Tina Knowles was pregnant with the SAY MY NAME singer - her first child - she realised that her family name BEYINCE was dying. Tina is the youngest of seven children, but only one of her brothers had conceived a son.

She says, "I said, 'Oh God, we'll run out of Beyinces.'"

But when Tina and her husband MATHEW decided to give their daughter a variant of her maiden name, her French-speaking Creole father from Louisiana, LUMIS BEYINCE, was far from impressed.

Tina admits, "My family was not happy. My dad said, 'She's gonna be really mad at you, because that's a last name.' And I'm like, 'It's not a last name to anybody but you guys.'"

20/02/2004 02:47