Kendall Jenner: Why She Changed Her Last Name — The Truth

Kendall Jenner has dropped her famous last name for the sake of her modeling career, and a source has revealed to HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY just why she made that choice! Find out below. Kendall Jenner's high fashion modeling career has only just begun, but she's already making big choices for herself -- namely, her decision to drop her last name from her portfolio and to model simply as "Kendall." However, she didn't make the choice for the reasons you might think, as a source revealed to HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY!

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August 29, 2014 6:53PM EDT
Kendall Jenner Changes Name
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Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner The Metropolitan Museum of Art's COSTUME INSTITUTE Benefit Celebrating the Opening of Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, New York, America - 02 May 2016
Kylie Jenner and sister Kendall Jenner Costume Institute Benefit celebrating the opening of Camp: Notes on Fashion, Arrivals, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA - 06 May 2019
Exclusive - Premium Rates Apply. Call your Account Manager for pricing. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Andrew H Walker/Shutterstock (8770841fc) Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner The Costume Institute Benefit celebrating the opening of Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between, Inside, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA - 01 May 2017
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Kendall Jenner Changes Name: Why She Dropped Last Name For Modeling Career

No, she didn’t drop her last name from her portfolio over at The Society Management because she’s embarrassed of her family or for any of the myriad of other not-so-nice reasons that haters have come up with.

“She just wants some independence from her family,” a source close to the Kardashian-Jenner family revealed to HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “Everyone in the business refers to her on a first-name basis, anyway.

Kendall Jenner — Are Kris & Bruce Upset She Dropped Her Last Name?

“Plus, she thinks it’s cool! She’s always looked up to Twiggy and Giselle, and they’re on a first-name basis, too. It’s really important to Kendall that she make a name for herself on her own and she feels like dropping her last name helps with that goal.”

Kendall Jenner: ‘I Had To Work Even Harder’ To Get Jobs Because I Was A Jenner

Makes sense, right?

Besides, it’s not as if her last name was helping her any when it came to booking jobs, contrary to popular opinion — at least, according to her. As she revealed to Teen Vogue for her cover September cover shoot, “People didn’t want to take a chance on me, I think because I was sort of known.”

“They were a little bit on the fence about it. Some people might think that what I’ve done before made it easier for me to get jobs, but it was actually a disadvantage. I had to work even harder.”

While we’re not so sure that being a Kardashian-adjacent Jenner hindered her all that much, we can see where she’s coming from.

And hey, she’s 18 — all the power to her for her ability to make her own decisions! She’s clearly drop-dead gorgeous, and considering the gigs she’s already landed — for example, on Marc Jacobs‘ runway and in the pages of Vogue — she is well on her way to becoming a top model.

So, HollywoodLifers, what do you think of Kendall’s name change? Into it? Not so into it? Let us know.

— Amanda Michelle Steiner, Reporting by Sandra Clark

More Kendall Jenner News:

  1. Kendall Vs. Kylie Jenner’s Dramatic Beauty Looks At ‘DuJour’ Party
  2. Kendall Jenner Drops Her Last Name For Modeling Career
  3. Kendall Jenner’s ‘VOGUE’ Debut — See Her Stunning Shoot