Billie Eilish on why she “absolutely hated” her name growing up

Billie Eilish has opened up about why she “absolutely hated” her name growing up.

• Read More: Billie Eilish – ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’ review: bold, brilliant and somewhat brighter

In the latest cover story of British Vogue, Eilish was given questions posed by celebrity friends including Ariana Grande, Chappell Roan, Stella McCartney, and brother Finneas.

Also among them was actor Idris Elba, who asked Eilish about how it felt growing up “with a name like Billie”.

“How did it make you feel? Were you proud of your name, or were you embarrassed?” he asked.

“I love this question! I absolutely hated my name when I was a kid,” Eilish responded, recalling that she only ever heard people saying that Billie “was a boy’s name” all her life.

“I remember just being so mad, and all I wanted was to have a girly name, like Violet or like Lavender, some sort of, you know, pretty flowery name,” she continued. “And it’s so funny because now there’s no other name in the universe that could be my name besides Billie. I love my name so so so much. It really is the only possible choice for who I am.”

She revealed that she was named after her grandfather, who was named William. “So technically the first Billy I ever knew was my grandfather, but I never met him,” she added.

“The first female Billie I think I knew of was Billie Piper, from Doctor Who. I loved Doctor Who, so I was very, very excited about that. But then at the same time I was jealous and mad because I was like, ‘Why would anybody say my name and mean someone else? Unacceptable!'” she stated, laughing.

Elsewhere in the interview, Eilish was asked by Nicki Minaj about being “uncomfortable” expressing her feminine self as an artist. “I’ve had to really convince myself that I am beautiful,” Eilish replied. “Being a woman is hard.”

Eilish has been outspoken many times about the pressures of body image for women in the current landscape. In January, she warned fans of the dangers of extreme dieting, reflecting on a period “a couple of years back” when she “lost a lot of weight” and was “extremely unhappy and unaware of how unhappy I was.”

In 2019, she shared that a hip injury she suffered had resulted in her suffering a bout of depression as a young teen.

“It sent me down a hole,” she remembered at the time. “I went through a whole self-harming phase – we don’t have to go into it. But the gist of it was, I felt like I deserved to be in pain.”

In 2023, she further reflected on how she felt her body had been “gaslighting her” following the injury.

“Going through my teenage years of hating myself and all that stupid shit,” she said. “A lot of it came from my anger toward my body, and how mad I was at how much pain it’s caused me, and how much I’ve lost because of things that happened to it.”

On Saturday (April 12), Eilish joined Charli XCX during her Coachella 2025 set for a rendition of their collaboration ‘Guess’, which they were recently nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

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