Kim Kardashian revealed she changed her name shortly before she and her family achieved reality TV fame with “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
“I used to always go by Kimberly, until we signed on to do the reality show. And when I looked at my chyron, Kimberly Kardashian, I said, ‘I think that’s so long for people to say.’ And like, ‘Let’s just shorten it to Kim,’” the “Kardashians” star, 45, told Time in an interview published on Thursday.
“And it’s so weird, because all my friends from high school and growing up, and my dad, everyone calls me Kimberly.”
The Skims founder, who has been known to use her name when branding her various entrepreneurial endeavors, also took credit for ultimately getting her family to agree to the reality TV show.
“I think I was the one that convinced everyone for sure. I really wanted it. I really wanted to do a reality show since the day MTV’s ‘The Real World’ came out and I watched it with my best friend,” Kardashian shared.
“I looked at her and I told her, ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’ And she said, ‘I’ll be your manager.’ I think we were 11. I said, ‘When we’re 18, we have to make a tape and send it into “The Real World.”‘
“Her dad’s in the music-business management world. So she said, ‘Oh, we can get my dad to send it to someone at MTV.’ We made a whole plan,” she continued.
While the job of Kardashian’s manager famously went to her mom, Kris Jenner, the model did eventually start working with “The Real World” producers as “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” was backed by Bunim/Murray, who produced the MTV series.
The “All’s Fair” star went on to admit that she convinced her sisters, Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian and her mom, Kris Jenner, that the show would be an opportunity to promote their now-defunct Dash clothing boutique.
“The whole reason we wanted to start our show was to bring attention to our Dash store–at least that’s how I was able to get my sisters to sign on,” she said.
“I let them know that, you know, it’ll bring such great promotion to our store. And they were in once they heard that.”
“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” ended in 2021 after 14 years with E! Network. The family has since transitioned to streaming and now star on Hulu’s “The Kardashians.”
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