Chicago

Kardashian Reveals How Daughter Chicago Got Her Name

The celebrity icon also revealed the nickname they've given their daughter

What to Know

  • “We were going to name her Jo, which was my grandma Mary Jo,” Kardashian said
  • “I just felt like Chicago was cool and different,” she said. “We call her Chi.”

Why Chicago?

It’s a question many fans asked after Kim Kardashian and Kanye West revealed the name of their newest daughter earlier this year.

“Obviously because [Kanye is] from Chicago. That is a place that made him, a place that he remembers his family from,” Kardashian told Ellen DeGeneres on her show Monday.

But apparently, Chicago wasn’t always going to be the baby’s name.

“We were going to name her Jo, which was my grandma Mary Jo,” Kardashian said, noting that she preferred one-syllable names. “We were going to go with Jo or we were going to go with Grace … and then it was Chicago.”

She added that her husband initially wanted the child to be named after his mother, Donda, but Kardashian worried that could be “so much to live up to.”

“I just felt like Chicago was cool and different,” she said. “We call her Chi.”

Chicago was born in January via a surrogate, a process Kardashian called “the best experience.” The couple revealed her name to the public days later, prompting responses from several groups in the city. 

But Kardashian had some concerns as she prepared for Chicago's birth.

“The second she came out, any fear that I had of, ‘Will I not have this connection? Will she not look like me?’ All of that goes out the door and instantly she’s ours,” Kardashian said.

And it appears the same is felt by Chicago’s new siblings.

“[Saint] loves his little sister. He’s so sweet with her,” Kardashian said. “I always have to watch out for him. He smothers her.”

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