08/27/2025
Mackenzie addresses the hate she's gotten for naming her twins Ja’Kharie & Ja’Meikah.
“As a couple, we love our kids’ names and we thought they’re beautiful,” Mackenzie said. “When we just held those names to ourselves we were really excited. But as soon as we put it out to the world, s**t hit the fan.”
Mack said the hate for the girls’ names overshadowed the happiness of their births, which came after Mackenzie experienced serious complications at the end of her pregnancy.
“The moment they were born, no one was even like, ‘We’re so glad you’re alive, we’re so glad you made it through the pre-eclampsia, so glad the girls are healthy.’ No, it was immediately, ‘We hate the names!’ Mackenzie stated.
Mackenzie went on to explain that Khesanio came up with the names for their daughters, and that she wanted him to have the experience of naming kids of his own.
“I don’t understand what you guys wanted me to tell my spouse who fell in love with these names and are like, ‘These are my daughters’ names. These are the only kids I’ll ever have and this is what I’m naming them.'” Mackenzie said.
“Did you want me to look at him and say, ‘Those names are too Black for me.’ Did you guys want me to say that? Because absolutely the hell not. I’m not going to say that. I love my girls’ names.”
“All of [Khesanio’s mother’s] grandchildren have names that start with ‘J’ and they’re all very long names. Like, three or four syllables long. So this will be grandkid number six and seven [for her]. And her last grandkids,” Mack— who had previously had her tubes tied before beginning IVF to have the twins— said.
“So, all of them have the ‘J’ names, they’re very long names, and they’re names that, especially here in America, you haven’t heard, most likely. We already knew from the get-go that we were going to have to follow that trend.”
Mack said she and Khesanio would frequently FaceTime his mom— who lives in Jamaica— about what to name the twins.
“I wanted names that I’d never heard before, but I have heard these names before,” Mack said, adding that she asked Khesanio to wait until the girl were born before they announced what the names would be.
“[I told Khesanio], ‘I’m warning you right now, people are going to flip s**t,'” she said. “People are going to hate them. Especially because I’m white and these are my kids. We were just going to get a lot of s**t. I already knew.”
“These are my children and I do not care what the world thinks,” she said.
