Tyra Banks is opening up about something fans rarely hear: how close she came to growing up under a completely different name.
During the April 15 episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, the 51-year-old supermodel and media mogul chatted candidly with host Jenna Bush Hager about her name origins—and the alternate identity that almost was.
“Tell me about ‘Tyra.’ Did you like it growing up?” Bush Hager asked. With her signature candor, Banks shared a surprising detail.
“My mom told me that she was gonna name me ‘Kelly Banks,’” Tyra revealed, sparking an immediate reaction from Bush Hager. “‘Kelly Banks?’” she repeated, clearly trying to imagine the world-famous runway star as anything other than Tyra.
The supermodel admitted she’s thought about it, too. “And I wonder if I was Kelly Banks, what would I be?” she said, musing about how her life and brand might have taken a different direction.
Laughing, Tyra leaned into the alternate-universe version of herself, saying, “It sounds like a cheerleader name,” before jokingly spelling it out like she was at a pep rally. “It feels like a happy name!”
Bush Hager noted how common the name Kelly was for their generation, often linked with popular girls of the time. Banks agreed and even brought up how Barbie dolls named Kelly were everywhere when she was young.
As the topic shifted to career beginnings and reinvention, Banks recalled trying out different variations of her name during her early modeling years. “When I first started modeling, it was ‘Tyra Banks,’ and then I got to Paris and I was like, ‘I gotta take off the ‘Banks,’ so I was just ‘Tyra,’” she said.
However, her minimalist approach didn’t stick for long. When Tyra appeared on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, seeing just “Tyra” in the credits made her reconsider. “I thought that didn’t look professional, so I added ‘Banks’ back,” she explained.
Whether she’s Tyra, Kelly, or simply Banks, one thing’s clear—her name may have evolved, but her influence and authenticity have remained iconic.