Tracy Ellis Ross Name Story

Your dad is Ellis Silverstein, obviously your mom is Ross.

Do you want to know the story? Please give me the story.

When I explain it, you're like, oh, I see.

So I was born Tracy Joy Silverstein.

My middle name is Joy.

That's what's on my birth certificate.

And then Tracy Joy

Ross Silverstein became the name that I had all through grade school. So I was TJRS.

And I don't know where, what, why, I don't know what that was.

I don't know. I don't know. And then we lost

Silverstein because my dad, this is so complicated, so ridiculous.

My dad, and my dad is Robert Ellis Silverstein, but he goes by Bob Ellis.

Him and his wife, my stepmom, are Bob and Susan Ellis.

So we dropped Silverstein because Why no Silverstein? I love Silverstein.

I love Silverstein too. I love Silverstein.

They just wanted out of there. S I L B E R S T I N. You know what I mean? Okay. My

family, my family was probably silversmiths back in the day when they came through

Ellis S I L B E R S T I N. You know what I mean?

However, we all dropped Silverstein.

I became Tracy Joy Ross, and then here's the key, when I joined SAG.

I was, you know, nobody uses their

middle name. You're Tracy Ross, and when I joined SAG, there was another Tracy

Ross. Remember Tracy, no, you're too young. Tracy Ross from Star Search.

Oh, wow, I remember Star Search, though. I tried to get up on there.

Oh. They let me through.

Well, you know what, Kiki? You did fine.

I think we're okay. We can let go of that resentment.

Literally, I'm still

holding on to it. We can drop that grudge, okay? You did it, all right?

Okay, anyway. So there was another Tracy Ross,

and so I could put Joy in my name and be Tracy Joy Ross, but I really wanted,

when my name hit the screen, for everyone to

know that I was not just my mom's daughter, but also my dad's daughter.

And so I am Tracy Ellis Ross, so that every time I'm up there,

Bob Ellis knows that's my kid, and Dinah Ross knows that's also my kid.

And it's like she's proud of us both. There you go.

Which is just so kick ass. My son,

I always thought about adding Palmer to it, but if he wanted to, I mean,

if he did a situation like what you did, I would be just so thrilled.

I don't know, it just felt right. It's the sweetest.

And I also, when I was choosing names,

which is a really fun thing to do, I was like,

Tracy Ellis Ross sounds important. It really does. It sounds like gravitas.

It's like Tracy Ellis Ross. It's Tracy Ellis Ross.

It's a double E, a double L, a double S.