It’s weird seeing people (or bots?) use my birth name as a way to belittle me. I was born Susanna. Here’s a short thread on how I came to be called Siouxsie.

For as long as I can remember, everyone has called me Susie. Or Suzi. Or Susy. Or Suzy. The only person who ever called me Susanna was my mum when I was in trouble.

Then when I was 16 I met @Nemanerd. I fell instantly in love. Gorgeous, smart, funny, & a genuinely lovely person. And he had the BEST record collection.

He introduced me to Siouxsie & the Banshees & started spelling my name that way. And it stuck. Even my grandmother used it. She almost never spelt it right. But she always gave it a go. Eventually I changed it officially.

Yes, it’s hard to spell and lots of people don’t know how to pronounce it. The first time I ever did a live TV interview (with Mike Hosking) of all people, the other person being interviewed called me Sushi. It was quite funny. Most common pronunciation is S-eye-ook-see

Now that I live in Aotearoa, I’ve become more aware of cultural appropriation and so it does worry me that my continued use of Siouxsie is offensive to the indigenous First Nations people of North America.