Zonnique Pullins has finally revealed her baby girl’s adorable name, as well as the story of what seemed to be a hint of family drama behind how it came to be.
The 24-year-old mom has been keeping her family life private since giving birth to her first daughter, but during an Instagram Live chat on Saturday, Feb. 12, Zonnique finally spilled the name she and her boyfriend, rapper Israel “Bandhunta Izzy” James, landed on for their baby: Hunter Zoelle James.
Pullins admittedly “made-up” the name Zoelle, which almost won the first name battle had it not been for a last-minute call by Izzy, and possibly some pressure from her mom, singer Tameka “Tiny” Harris.
“I was going to do Zoelle Hunter James; then my mom was trying to act like it sounded better being like Hunter Zoelle James. Anyway, her name was going to be Hunter for the longest,” she said during her video. “I put it in Izzy’s hands because people was driving me crazy. I’m like ‘Izzy, it’s whatever you want.’ Zoelle was what he wanted, so I’m telling my mom like ‘Cool it with the Hunter’…’Stop trying to throw Hunter down everybody’s throat. It’s Zoelle, and we can just make Hunter her middle name.’
The former OMG Girlz member was apparently hanging out with longtime friend and former bandmate Reginae Carter while filming her story because toward the beginning the daughter of rapper Lil Wayne and reality star Toya Johnson can be heard yelling her former vote for the baby girl’s name from offscreen — shouting, “I SAID ZOELLE!”
Pullins continued, telling her fans that the names were swapped about two weeks before Hunter’s birth, but she’ll probably largely go by Zoelle. “Probably two weeks before I was going to the hospital to have her, Izzy said he wanted her name to be Hunter. So Hunter Zoelle James it is, but y’all can call her Zoelle if y’all want. If ya’ll just so in love with the name I made up I don’t mind that. I don’t mind that at all…She has nothing that says Hunter on it.”
Since the announcement of her daughter’s birth on Dec. 15, Pullins has given fans minimal social media access to baby Hunter. The first glimpse they got of the infant was when Zonnique and Izzy showed the back of her head during an Instagram Live video on Jan. 26, followed by a selfie in which she’s holding Hunter with only the back of her head visible again.
