Kim Kardashian changed her name before first appearance on Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Kim Kardashian went by her full name Kimberly Kardashian before realising that it was "so long for people to say" prior to her first appearance on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Kim Kardashian changed her name just before making her debut on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
The 45-year-old star formerly went by her full name Kimberly Kardashian but made a last-minute change before the show first aired in 2007 as she realised it was too long when seeing it on screen.
Kim told Time magazine: "I used to always go by Kimberly, until we signed on to do the reality show.
"I said, 'I think that's so long for people to say.' And like, 'Let's just shorten it to Kim.'
"And it's so weird, because all my friends from high school and growing up, and my dad, everyone calls me Kimberly."
The All's Fair actress also claimed the credit for persuading her sisters Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner to sign up for Keeping Up with the Kardashians as a method of promoting their Los Angeles clothing store DASH.
Kim recalled: "I mean, the whole reason we wanted to start our show was to bring attention to our DASH store - at least that's how I was able to get my sisters to sign on.
"I let them know that, you know, it'll bring such great promotion to our store. And they were in once they heard that."
The brunette beauty stressed that she was the mastermind behind the reality TV empire that the Kardashian family have built.
Kim said: "I think I was the one who convinced everyone for sure. I really wanted it.
"I really wanted to do a reality show since the day MTV's The Real World came out and I watched it with my best friend. I looked at her and I told her, 'That's what I'm going to do.' And she said, 'I'll be your manager', I think we were 11."
She added: "I said, 'When we're 18, we have to make a tape and send into The Real World.'
"Her dad's in the music-business management world. So she said, 'Oh, we can get my dad to send it to someone at MTV.' We made a whole plan.
"And so when I signed on to do Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the producers were the same producers, Bunim/Murray (with Ryan Seacrest), that did The Real World."
Meanwhile, Kim's clothing brand SKIMS is worth billions and she explained her entrepreneurial flair emerged long before she found TV stardom.
She recalled: "I was working in my dad's office, having my little eBay business, closet-organising business and making hair accessories and selling them at Fred Segal. There's so much I did before I started a TV show that was entrepreneurial."
