Kim Kardashian has been a fixture in the public spotlight for nearly two decades, with 18 years of experience in reality television. Today, she’s universally recognized as Kim Kardashian. However, the reality star recently shared that before her rise to fame, she was known as Kimberly. Just before Keeping Up with the Kardashians debuted, she decided to shorten her name to Kim. Despite this change almost 20 years ago, those from her earlier life still address her as Kimberly, and she continues to adjust to being universally known as Kim.

Kim Kardashian went by a different name before she got famous

Though widely recognized as “Kim” today, Kardashian spent much of her early life using her full name. In a conversation with Time, she disclosed that friends and family from her youth still refer to her as Kimberly. Up until her mid-20s, she was known as Kimberly to her high school peers and her late father, Robert Kardashian, which explains why the name endures among those who knew her before her fame.

She only made the switch because she thought “Kimberly Kardashian” was too much of a mouthful when she saw it on a chyron ahead of the release of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She asked to have her name changed to Kim, preferring the simple, short first name with her longer last name, at least for professional purposes. It’s been that way ever since, but her old friends and her family still call her Kimberly. She even admitted that she is still more comfortable as Kimberly than as Kim.

Her sisters all go by their full names

When Kim Kardashian and the Kardashian family rose to fame in the early 2000s, we never really thought about her name. Sure, their claim to fame was all having names that began with the letter K, but if you really think about it, they have something else in common. All of the other Kardashian-Jenner sisters use their full names. Sure, they have nicknames, but both professionally and privately, they largely use their full names.

Kourtney Kardashian, for example, has a name as long as Kim’s full name, but she did not opt to go by a nickname. Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner both have the benefit of shorter, more recognizable last names, and Khloe’s full name is short and snappy, lending itself well to her public persona.  The only other Kardashian who opts to use a nickname more often than not is Rob Kardashian, who has mostly opted out of public life.