Tina Knowles Shares That Her Daughter Solange Was Conceived on the Nile River in Egypt

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 30 May 2024

Both of Tina Knowles’ daughters, Beyoncé and Solange, have unique names—and Tina Knowles shared on a recent episode of Vogue’s podcast “The Run-Through” the origin stories of both of them.

Solange Knowles — Her mother recently spoke about it, but Solange actually revealed the point of her conception in an interview years ago.

Let’s start with Solange: to know where her name ultimately came from, we have to take a look at what her name might have been had she been a boy. Knowles revealed that, had she had a son, she would have named him Niles, because Solange was conceived on the Nile River in Egypt.

“I thought I was having a boy, and I wanted to name him Niles,” Knowles said. “But little did I know, here came this girl.” Knowles then shared that she found Solange’s name in a baby book she bought in Paris, one she had purchased for one of her girlfriends. “She was going to have a baby, and then the next year I wound up having a baby, so I pulled that old book out,” Knowles said.

Solange herself spoke of her conception story during an interview in 2017 with The Evening Standard, telling the publication “I had some revelations in terms of my parents finding out they conceived me in Egypt about visiting the Giza pyramids, and [I connected] to that and the constellation of Orion that aligns with Giza,” Solange said. (Per Page Six, Solange’s tour in 2017 was called Orion’s Rise.) As an homage—intentional or not—to what could have been her name, Solange collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on a song called “Nile,” which was featured on 2019’s The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack.

Beyonce at the Renaissance World Tour — Beyoncé's name has familial roots, and is her mother's maiden name.

As for Beyoncé, her name is her mother Tina’s maiden name, which evolved from both “Boyoncé” and “Beyincé,” Knowles said on “The Run-Through,” adding she felt it was very important to keep her family name alive because there were “very few” boys in their family to carry it on. (Quite certain the world will never forget your maiden name, Ms. Tina.)

“We have very few boys and so I was like, ‘Oh God, this name is going to become extinct,’” Knowles said. “So for me to claim it is really good.”

Tina Knowles — Knowles said honoring her family name through her daughter's moniker was important to her.

She spoke of both of her daughters—whom she shares with her ex-husband Mathew Knowles—when they were children, reminiscing of her eldest, Beyoncé, that she “was very shy, and she got bullied a bit,” Knowles said. “But the day that she stood up for someone—she didn’t stand up for herself, she stood up for them. I’m getting emotional talking about it. I was just—I couldn’t have been more proud of her.”

Beyonce and Solange — The sisters in 1990...

As for Solange, her youngest had people “signing a petition in school” when she was just in the fifth grade. “She’s always been an activist,” Knowles said proudly.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.