Lana Del Rey said she chose a name that could shape her music. In a 2011 interview with British Vogue, she associated it with Miami, Spanish-speaking Cuban friends and the glamour of the seaside. In a later Vogue Italia interview account, she connected “Lana” to actress Lana Turner and “Del Rey” to Delray Beach, Florida. The interviews offer complementary associations, not one definitive etymology.
The name was meant to shape the music
Speaking to British Vogue in 2011, Del Rey—identified in the interview as born Lizzy Grant—said: “I wanted a name I could shape the music towards.” She explained that she was going to Miami often and speaking Spanish with Cuban friends. The name, she said, brought to mind “the glamour of the seaside” and “sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.” British Vogue’s 2011 interview presents the choice as part of forming a musical identity.
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What “Lana Del Rey” referred to in a later account
A later Vogue Italia interview account, published in 2024, gives associations for the two parts of the name: “Lana” recalled actress Lana Turner, while “Del Rey” referred to Delray Beach, Florida. The account also places the name amid Del Rey’s broader attraction to New Orleans and the West Coast.
Was she named after Lana Turner?
Partly, according to the later Vogue Italia account: it links “Lana” to Turner, but links “Del Rey” to Delray Beach. That detail sits alongside, rather than disproves, Del Rey’s earlier explanation about Miami, Cuban friends, seaside glamour and the sound of the name. The interviews do not establish a single exclusive origin that cancels out the other associations.
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