Popular Nollywood actress, Belinda Effah has explained why she changed her name to Grace Charis Bassey Effah.
The filmmaker said she changed her name after an encounter with God.
She revealed this at a recent press briefing organised to unveil her new name and brand.
“I had to change my name (Belinda) and the only one that can make me change my name will be the Most Supreme Being which is God. A lot of people will not understand that. So, I don’t bother to explain to people when they ask me why,” she said.
She went further to explain, “A couple of years ago I wanted to change my name when I found out that I could not really grasp the meaning of my name. Some people said it meant ‘beauty’ some other people said it meant ‘beautiful serpent’.
“So, I was cut in between not knowing what the right meaning is.
Linda seemed to have diverse meaning and I wasn’t quite comfortable with that. Also with the fact that Belinda was not the first name that my parents gave to me.
My birth name is Uyu.”
She went down memory lane to explaine how her brother gave her the name Belinda.
“I came across Belinda in secondary school, one day my brother came up with the idea of changing my name and my sister’s name because we were all bearing native names.
“He came up with different names and asked us to pick. Funny enough I picked Melinda but I didn’t like the name because people started calling me Mirinda in school.
“So I decided to just go on with Belinda because they could not twist it to something funny like Mirinda.
“I should have known not to pick Belinda because my brother actually picked it for my sister and I was going to be Melinda but she said she wanted Fiona. She checked the meaning and it was cool and she went on with it.
“I didn’t check, I was just carried away with Belinda because it sounded cool, it sounded hip, and that’s what I get all the time when people hear my name; they say oh! I like that name. It sounds hip!”
She said she was stuck at some point in her life and decided to ask questions about her purpose in life.
“I had to turn to my creator and asked him, what is your purpose for me in this life? That was because nothing seems to make sense to me anymore. Not money, not people, not material things,” she explained.
She continued, “Before then, on my own I wanted to change my name but when I thought about it and made research about name change, it was too complicated you have to change your whole identity, you have to do the paper works, of course I’m a brand people know me as Belinda Effah.
“So it’s personal and my fans are very personal too. I mean they won’t accept it at all cost, I actually changed it three years ago but not on papers. It was too tedious, so, I gave it up.
“However, on the15th of August last year. I had a divine encounter with God to change my name to Grace.
“Nobody changed my name to Grace, God did. So after my encounter with God, I called my parents and told them not to call me Belinda anymore, and my mom said wow… congratulations.
“The interesting part is that my mom said she named me Grace at birth.”
She then announced, “So… Dear world, ladies and gentlemen of the press, dear family and friends I will like to be recognised and identified as Grace-Charis Bassey henceforth and not as Belinda anymore. I know it’s going to take a while for people to adapt to this, people may make mistakes and still call me Belinda, it’s ok. I’m giving you guys six months to get used to it.”
she said, “I’m Grace-Charis Bassey and I want to unveil my new logo for my business. From House Of Belinda to Grace-Charis Bassey empire.
“So, this is my representation now. A couple of people have asked me what Charis means. Charis means Grace, so I’m double dose of grace.”
When asked if she had change her name on her social media platforms, the actress said that she had tried to change her name on Instagram but Instagram has refused for reasons known to them.
Grace-Charis Bassey is an amazing actress and Tv presenter, and she started her acting career in 2005.