There is probably no corner in the globe where Beyoncé is not known. What may be less well known, however, is that the accent on her name, which fittingly translates as “surpassing others”, is a remnant of her Louisiana Creole heritage — and that it was originally spelt Beyincé.
It was the maiden name of her mother, Tina Knowles, but hospital staff misspelt it on her birth certificate and refused to correct it.
Perhaps to avoid such a faux pas in the future, the French dictionary Larousse introduced the chanteuse into the select roll-call of celebrities that it lists among the proper nouns.
Beyoncé Knowles’s entry as “American singer of R&B and pop” is one of 40 French and foreign personalities chosen for this year’s update of the venerable Petit Larousse Illustré, an encyclopedic dictionary first published in 1905.
Beyoncé might have been helped by her roots — both her maternal grandparents were French-speaking Louisiana Creoles — although the actress Cate Blanchett, the film-maker Sir Christopher Nolan and the basketball star LeBron James also made the cut.
