Camila Cabello Explains Why She Doesn't Go By Her Real First Name Karla

Camila Cabello technically isn’t a Camila at all.

As most of her fans know, Camila‘s real first name is Karla, however, when she was younger, her family really didn’t call her that.

“Karla is my first name, Camila is my middle name. Long story short, my family always called me Camila,” she explained in a BTS video from her “Havana” video.

She adds, “When I came to school in the United States, I was really, really shy and the teachers started calling me Karla.”


Camila goes on to explain that her two names have very distinct and different personalities.

“In my life, I push myself to do a lot of things that make me uncomfortable, and that’s how I started dancing. That’s how I feel like I found myself – through Camila and performance and music, as that confident video vixen. They’re both over-exaggerated personas of me. I really wanted to show in an exaggerated way, two different sides of me.”

“Camila, which is kind of this performer in me and Karla is who I still am in my essence and who I was growing up: really awkward around boys, doesn’t know what the heck to say, is shy and introverted, doesn’t really like going out because she just likes to be in her fantasy movie world and that’s really me.”