Gigi Hadid's first name is not actually 'Gigi'

• Gigi Hadid's first name is not actually Gigi.
• She was born Jelena Noura Hadid.
• But she has gone by Gigi since she was in elementary school to set her apart from a girl named Helena in her class.
• Her mom Yolanda Hadid sometimes called her by the nickname as well.
• Yolanda grew up in the Netherlands, where she also sometimes called Gigi by her family.

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Gigi Hadid has become a household name. But the supermodel hasn't always gone by Gigi. In fact, it's not her first name at all — it's really her nickname.

The 22-year-old model was born on April 23, 1995, as Jelena Noura Hadid.

While Gigi doesn't sound like a natural abbreviation for Jelena (pronounced Yelena), it was passed down from her mom, "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star and former model Yolanda Hadid, who was also sometimes called Gigi by her family while growing up in the Netherlands.

"My mom was called that as a kid by her mother when she was younger, but only around the house," Gigi told Vogue in 2015. "I was called that around the house when I was really young."

It didn't take long for Gigi to become more than an endearing nickname at home, and soon enough Jelena became known as Gigi at school.

"In first or second grade, there was a girl named Helena and it got confusing with the teacher who had to call out our names," Gigi told Vogue. "So the teacher asked my mom, 'If I needed to call Jelena a nickname, what would it be?' And my mom was like, 'I call her Gigi sometimes,' and the name stuck."

Although she got the nickname from her mom, it sounds like Gigi's classmate Helena and her former schoolteacher had a big part to play in giving the model her now iconic name.

However, because she started modeling so young, Gigi probably began her career as Jelena. She landed her very first modeling contract when she was just 2 years old with Guess, so it's likely that gig was under the name Jelena, not Gigi. Of course, by the time she became a top model she had been going by Gigi Hadid for most of her life.

As for Gigi's sister, Bella, who has become just as successful, her first name is simply a shortened version of her full name: Isabella Khair Hadid. 

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