Taylor Swift Confirms The Names In ‘Betty’ Are Those Of Her Friends’ Kids

Taylor Swift has officially confirmed that the names used in her new song “Betty” were taken from people she knows ― specifically, her friends’ kids.

On Wednesday, a fan named Laura posted a video on Instagram of herself listening to country radio. You can hear Swift talking on the radio about how she was inspired to write the 14th song on “Folklore,” her latest album.

Swift explains that the song is about a teenager who just lost the love of his life and is experiencing what it’s like to give a heartfelt apology for the first time. 

“Everybody makes mistakes, everybody really messes up sometimes. This is a song that I wrote from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy. I always loved that in music you can kind of slip into different identities and you can sing from other people’s perspectives. So that’s what I did on this one,” she shares, before confirming something that fans have been wondering about for days.

“I named all the characters in this story after my friends’ kids, and I hope you like it.”

Since the release of “Folklore” last month, fans have been musing about “Betty.” For one, the track has resonated widely within the queer community because, as New York Magazine put it, the song references “Longing. Unrequited love. Skateboards. Gender bending. Rumors. A harmonica! Everything about this song screams queer.”

Additionally, the song includes multiple names that are pretty clearly connected.

“Betty, I know where it all went wrong,” sings Swift at one point, followed later by: “You heard the rumors from Inez / You can’t believe a word she says” and “She said, ‘James, get in, let’s drive.’”

Many fans quickly noted that James and Inez are the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ two eldest daughters. However, the name of their third daughter, who was born in October, has not yet been released to the public.

Notably, Swift is very good friends with Lively so it stands to reason that if the new song is dropping clues like fans hope, Lively and Reynolds’ 10-month-old is named Betty.

HuffPost has reached out to representatives for Lively and Reynolds for more information.