No One From Kim Kardashian’s Old Life Calls her Kim
Kim Kardashian has spent almost 20 years in the public eye. She has been on reality TV for the last 18 years, and, at this point, the world knows her as Kim Kardashian. The reality TV star insists that it is not what everyone called her before she became famous. Kardashian recently revealed she made a snap decision to go by Kim instead of Kimberly right before Keeping Up with the Kardashians hit the air. Despite the decision to swap names almost two decades ago, people from her past still call her Kimberely, and she’s still settling into being known as Kim.
Kim Kardashian went by a different name before she got famous
Kim Kardashian has spent many years as “Kim” to the public, but apparently, she spent just as many years going by her full name. In an interview with Time, Kim Kardashian revealed that her childhood friends and family often call her Kimberly, despite her growing fame as Kim. She said there is a good reason for that, too. Apparently, she went exclusively by Kimberly, including to high school friends and her late father, Robert Kardashian, until he was in her mid-20s.
She only made the switch because she thought “Kimberly Kardashian” was too much of a mouthful when she saw it on a chyron ahead of the release of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She asked to have her name changed to Kim, preferring the simple, short first name with her longer last name, at least for professional purposes. It’s been that way ever since, but her old friends and her family still call her Kimberly. She even admitted that she is still more comfortable as Kimberly than as Kim.
Her sisters all go by their full names
When Kim Kardashian and the Kardashian family rose to fame in the early 2000s, we never really thought about her name. Sure, their claim to fame was all having names that began with the letter K, but if you really think about it, they have something else in common. All of the other Kardashian-Jenner sisters use their full names. Sure, they have nicknames, but both professionally and privately, they largely use their full names.
Kourtney Kardashian, for example, has a name as long as Kim’s full name, but she did not opt to go by a nickname. Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner both have the benefit of shorter, more recognizable last names, and Khloe’s full name is short and snappy, lending itself well to her public persona. The only other Kardashian who opts to use a nickname more often than not is Rob Kardashian, who has mostly opted out of public life.
