BLACKPINK Lisa‘s hit new solo debut track, “LALISA,” just wouldn’t be the same without lines like “Lalisa love me,” or “Lalisa lalisa lalisa catch me if you can.” That said, the song could’ve been completely different if Lisa had kept the original name she was born with. Instead, she had her name legally changed in her youth to bring her good luck. In a new interview, Lisa revealed how that good luck actually ended up hitting her just one week later.
If you’re not familiar with the story of Lisa’s name change, the BLACKPINK star was originally born with the name Pranpriya Manoban. Undeniably beautiful, Pranpriya is a native Thai name that roughly translates to “beloved soul.”
Young Pranpriya Manoban, now known as BLACKPINK’s Lisa.
If she’d kept her birth name, you may have known her as BLACKPINK’s Priya today. However, when she was younger, she ended up changing her name to Lalisa, and it was all because of a fortune teller. Lisa delved a little deeper into the story in a new interview with Billboard.
BLACKPINK’s Lisa now | @sooyaaa__/Instagram
At the time, Lisa was around 13 years old, and she was already an award-winning young dancer. With a runner-up prize in singing too, becoming an idol was a natural next step for Lisa. So, in 2010, she decided to join a YG Entertainment audition in Thailand.
| BLACKPINK/YouTube
However, a while after the audition, YG Entertainment still hadn’t got back to Lisa on whether she’d made it through. “We really wanted to get it,” Lisa said, referring to herself and her family’s drive to score Lisa a trainee contract. So, Lisa’s mom ended up taking her to a fortune teller for some advice.
| BLACKPINK/YouTube
While it may sound unusual, it’s not totally unheard of for Thai people to change their names to rid themselves of bad luck. As such, when a fortune-teller told Lisa to change her first name from Pranpriya to Lalisa to bring her luck in her idol career, she happily obliged. Lalisa is typically taken to mean “one who is praised,” making it the perfect name for a future star.
| BLACKPINK/YouTube
But the craziest part was that the fortune teller’s advice seemed to actually work. In her Billboard interview, Lisa revealed, “The week after I changed my name, YG called me back and said, ‘You should come [be a trainee].’”
| @sooyaaa__/Instagram
I was like, ‘Wow!’
— Lisa
Now, it’s hard to imagine Lisa with any other name, and her single “LALISA” is proof of that. That said, many still don’t actually know the origins of her shortened stage name. Lisa also shared a funny story about how a cameraman asked her, “What is Lalisa?” a few weeks ago.
I was like, ‘It’s my name!’ People don’t really know that Lalisa is my real name, because they just know me as Lisa from BLACKPINK. So, I’m really happy that I get to do this project with the title “LALISA.”
— Lisa
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