Kelly Clarkson Tears Up As Sterling K. Brown Reveals Touching Story About His Name

Appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Monday to chat about his Hulu series Paradise, the actor opened up about his name — after using a different one when he was a teenager.

According to the actor, he went by his middle name, Kelby, until he was 16. As for why he reverted back to his birth name, that explanation got host Kelly Clarkson a little misty-eyed.

“My dad’s name is Sterling Brown Jr., my grandfather is Sterling Brown Sr., I’m Sterling Kelby Brown,” he began, saying he went by Kelby for a stretch of time because he “wanted my own name and it felt like Sterling was like an old man’s name.”

“Because he passed away when I was 10, by the time I turned 16 and I hadn’t heard his name for 5, 5 1/2 years and I was like, I kinda just want to hear that name again,” he continued. “So I asked people to call me Sterling.”

Clarkson was surprised by his touching response and appeared to tear up upon hearing it. Brown also appeared somewhat emotional, before the pair laughed it off.

“That was so sweet and beautiful,” Clarkson told him.

During the conversation, the OG American Idol winner said her son, Remington, also randomly decided to go by his middle name during a red carpet appearance at the Grammys.

“My son did this at a red carpet. He said, ‘Remington Alexander,’ he chose his middle name as his last name,” Clarkson said of the 8-year-old boy, who shares his last name with his father and Kelly’s ex, Brandon Blackstock. “He changed his name right in front of me. I said, is this your stage name?”

Brown previously opened up about losing his father at a young age, saying he felt like he had to be “the man of the house” at the time and “keep it together for my mom.” Brown’s father was just 45 when he died, reportedly from a diabetes-induced heart attack.

“I remember, like, really specific things,” he said of the day his father died during a 2019 interview on TODAY. “Waking up that morning and going into the kitchen, and my mom being on the phone, calling the paramedics and asking me to put clothes on my dad, because he was naked in the bed and his body was stiff.”

“He looks at me over the railing and he winks, just winks,” he added at the time. “They carry him out the door, last time I saw him.”