--- title: Chrissy Teigen on Not Taking John Legend's Last Name description: After a tweet questioning why a woman wouldn't take her husband's last name began to go viral, Chrissy Teigen supplied the perfect retort. canonical: https://time.com/5211049/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-22T17:03:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:34.032Z og:title: The Funny Reason Chrissy Teigen Didn't Take John Legend's Name og:description: Can't argue with that og:url: https://time.com/5211049/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26d2bb63db6504a4/69892ba1096a94703a6a1e6a/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Funny Reason Chrissy Teigen Didn't Take John Legend's Name twitter:description: Can't argue with that twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26d2bb63db6504a4/69892ba1096a94703a6a1e6a/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chrissy Teigen Reveals the Hilariously Perfect Reason She Didn't Take John Legend's Last Name > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 22, 2018 5:03 PM UTC  Chrissy Teigen and John Legend attend the 60th Annual Grammy Awards on January 28, 2018 in New York City. Chrissy Teigen and John Legend attend the 60th Annual Grammy Awards on January 28, 2018 in New York City.Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 22, 2018 5:03 PM UTC Another week, another amazing [Chrissy Teigen](http://time.com/5127151/grammys-chrissy-teigen-2018/) clapback on Twitter. After a tweet from last summer wondering why a woman wouldn’t take her husband’s last name began to once again make the Internet rounds on Wednesday, Teigen supplied the perfect retort to the question. “I’d really like to hear the reasoning behind women who won’t take their husband’s last name,” the original tweet read, prompting the 32-year-old model to reply, “my husband didn’t even take his last name?” Teigen was, of course, referring to the fact that Legend is not the real last name of her husband John, but rather his stage name. His birth name is actually John Roger Stephens, hence the reason their’s daughter Luna’s last name is Stephens. “John Legend is a nickname that some friends started calling me, and it kind of grew into my stage name,” the “All of Me” singer told [MTV News](http://www.mtv.com/news/1593317/john-legend-reflects-on-his-early-days-when-kanye-west-was-opening-for-him/) in 2008\. “‘Legend’ is something that I never would have chosen for myself originally. It grew to the point where more people in my circle would know me by that name than by my real name. I had to make a decision.” > [](https://twitter.com/%5FMercyFul/status/899352049032335360) > [](https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/976732393477324800) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5211049/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5211049/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name/"},"headline":"Chrissy Teigen Reveals the Hilariously Perfect Reason She Didn't Take John Legend's Last Name","datePublished":"2018-03-22T17:03:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:34.032Z","description":"Can't argue with that","url":"https://time.com/5211049/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","twitter","Chrissy Teigen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26d2bb63db6504a4/69892ba1096a94703a6a1e6a/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26d2bb63db6504a4/69892ba1096a94703a6a1e6a/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"60th Annual GRAMMY Awards - Arrivals","caption":"Chrissy Teigen and John Legend at the 2018 Grammys","creditText":"Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5211049/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-last-name/","name":"Chrissy Teigen Reveals the Hilariously Perfect Reason She Didn't Take John Legend's Last Name"}}]}] ```