In 2025, Billie Eilish is one of the most famous monikers in the entertainment industry. But a decade-plus ago, it was simply the name of a young girl who wanted to be called anything else, with the star revealing in a new British Vogue cover story that she “absolutely hated” her first name when she was growing up.
More than a dozen famous friends — from Sabrina Carpenter to Chappell Roan, SZA and Greta Gerwig – interviewed her for the piece published Monday (April 14), but Eilish was especially candid when Idris Elba asked whether she was proud or embarrassed of her unusual name when she was younger. “I absolutely hated my name when I was a kid,” the two-time Oscar winner replied. “‘I thought Billie was a boy’s name.’ That’s all I ever heard every day of my life.”
“I remember just being so mad, and all I wanted was to have a girly name, like Violet or 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.”
Noting that she was named after her grandfather, William, Eilish added that she found more confidence after realizing that an actress in one of her favorite shows shared her name. “The first female Billie I think I knew of was Billie Piper, from Doctor Who,” she told the publication. “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!’”
Though she fully embraces her name now, the nine-time Grammy winner also said in the piece that she still struggles with self-confidence. In response to a question from Nicki Minaj — who observed that Eilish sometimes seems “uncomfortable with how beautiful” she is — about whether she ever worries her physical attributes might “overshadow” her music, the “Lunch” singer replied, “Nicki, this question made me tear up a little.”
“I’ve never really felt very beautiful or seen myself in that way, so I definitely never struggled with the idea that it would overshadow anything, since I didn’t even really see it myself,” she continued. “I’ve had to really convince myself that I am beautiful.”
Eilish added, “Being a woman is hard.”
The interview comes a couple days after the singer-songwriter joined Charli XCX onstage at Coachella 2025 for a surprise performance of their Billboard Hot 100 No. 12 duet “Guess,” after which the “Von Dutch” artist shared a photo on Instagram of herself posing with her collaborator as well as fellow special guests Troye Sivan and Lorde. Eilish’s third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, arrived in May last year and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
See Eilish on the cover of British Vogue below.
