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Despite being merely 13 when she started working on her music, it didn’t take long for Billie Eilish to become one of the most famous names in the entertainment industry. In today’s day and age, at only 23, she has already established herself among the most commendable talents in the musical industry, with her name gaining worldwide recognition among fans.
To shed the vaguest light on her outstanding career, Eilish has topped multiple charts with her music across multiple countries and has taken home two Academy Awards, nine Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, twenty Guinness World Records, seven MTV Video Music Awards, three Brit Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards to date.
Not only is she the second artist in Grammy history to win all 4 general field categories — Record, Album, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist — in the same year, but also became the first person born in the 21st century to win an Oscar and the youngest ever two-time winner. Plus, she is the 26th-highest-certified digital singles artist and one of the most successful artists of the 2010s.
But while all of this is known about theWhat Was I Made For?singer, who has even been honored as one of the BBC 100 Women in December 2022, not many know the meaning of the name they know her so well from. In fact, there was even a time when Eilish’s name was changed to something else, which has a rather hilarious storyline behind it!
The meaning and story behind Billie Eilish’s name
Thebury a friendsinger may be well known by her professional and stage name, but that’s actually not her real name. As it turns out, Eilish’s real name is much longer and consists of a series of words, all having different different roots and meanings. For starters, her real and unabridged name is actually Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell.
There’s quite a bit of story behind this as well. As it turns out, Baird is her mother’s name, and Eilish was originally actually going to be her first name. Additionally, Pirate was going to be her middle name! In an interview withBBC, theLovelysinger explained the same, saying:
[Eilish] is my middle name. So I’m Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell. Pretty weird, right? Pirate was going to be my middle name, but then my uncle had a problem with it because pirates are bad. Then Baird is my mother’s name.
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As for the part about Eilish originally being intended to be her first name: According toRolling Stone, before the singer was born, her parents – Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell – saw a documentary about conjoined Irish twins, Katie and Eilish Holton, and were so influenced by it that they decided that if they ever had a daughter, they would name her Eilish.
However, tragedy struck the O’Connell family when Eilish’s mother was still pregnant with her: Maggie’s father, Bill, passed away. This brought about a change, as her parents decided to name her ‘Billie’ after her grandfather instead.
Then there’s the part about Pirate: Back when she was yet to be born and her brother,Finneas, was only four years old, he insisted on calling her “Pirate.” Thus, that name stuck too, and eventually resulted in theBIRDS OF A FEATHERsinger’s original name being a five-word affair.
Billie Eilish was almost named ‘Pirate’ instead of ‘Billie’
You can thank her brother for the part about her earning the “Pirate” tag, but that’s not the complete story. Truth is, when Baird was pregnant withBillie Eilish, the then-4-year-old Finneas was ostensibly going through a major pirate phase. This is why he decided to call his baby sister by that very name as well.
In fact, he was so obsessed with calling her that back then that the name almost stuckfor real. In her first eponymous book released back in 2021 and stand-alone audiobookBillie Eilish: In Her Own Words, where she offered candid commentary and reflections, theWILDFLOWERsinger shed light on the same, saying (viaUSA Today):
They called me Pirate for months, and they were kind of planning on naming me Pirate. And soon before I was born, my grandfather died, and his name was William, AKA Bill, Billie. And that’s where my name came from.
But, of course, the name still stuck around, considering how it’s now listed among one of her many middle names.
Billie Eilish’s family: She is of Irish and Scottish descent
Born on July 11, 2025, in Los Angeles, California, the ever-so-talented Billie Eilish was actually born to two really incredible industry talents, both of them actors. Her mother is the actress cum teacher Maggie Baird, and her father is actor Patrick O’Connell. Both of them are, notably, musicians as well, and work on their daughter’s tours.
As her parents revealed onThe Howard Stern Show, she was conceived via in vitro fertilization (viaAOL.com). While she grew up in Los Angeles’s Highland Park neighborhood, Eilish is actually of Irish and Scottish descent. Even her name holds Irish and Hebrew origins, with ‘Eilish’ – which is pronounced ‘eye-lish’ – meaning “my God is an oath.”
How Billie Eilish got into the music-making business
Since childhood, both Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas were homeschooled by their mother, who taught them the basics of songwriting. Their parents gave them the freedom to pursue their interests, and Eilish, for one, was inspired by none other than her mother and her brother to get into music, as the singer expressed herself (perHarper’s Bazaar).
Thus, having such musical influences so close to her, thei love yousinger found herself making her way into the musical world as she started playing the ukulele at 6, performing at talent shows, and even joined the LA Children’s Chorus at age 8 (seeVogue). As for her first “real” song? Well, it came when she was 11, for her mother’s songwriting class.
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Inspired by the TV showThe Walking Dead, from where she took script lines and episode titles to incorporate into her song, her track was about the zombie apocalypse. At the same time, besides music, she was also interested in dance. PerBillboard, she used to take dance classes, spending 11 hours a week in contemporary dance classes before a growth plate injury put a hasty end to her dancing and shifted her interest more to the music recording field.
Well, that was that, and since then, she has made sure to come a long way in this artistic career of hers, having delivered musical masterpieces likeDon’t Smile at Me,When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,Happier Than Ever, andHit Me Hard and Soft. If anything, Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell is, most certainly, the entertainment industry’s newItgirl.
Mahin Sultan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2478
Mahin Sultan is a Senior Writer at FandomWire, where she brings a fresh perspective to entertainment news. Having been in the field for over 3 years now, she has already written more than 2,000 articles across a variety of niches, from entertainment to health and fashion. This diverse experience has allowed her to quickly build a solid foundation and a deep understanding of the industry.
