Riley Keough Named Her Daughter After Both Elvis and Her Late Brother

For the first time, Riley Keough has revealed her daughter’s name, and it turns out it’s a touching tribute to both her late brother and her famous grandfather—rock icon Elvis Presley. The 34-year-old opened up about a variety of topics in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, including her mother Lisa Marie Presley’s death in January and the subsequent legal battle with her grandmother Priscilla Presley over control of her estate.

But on a happier note, the actor also shared her young daughter’s name publicly: Tupelo Storm Smith-Petersen.

“This is the thing in my life so far that I have really wanted to, quote-unquote, get right,” Keough said in the interview. “I don’t think you can ever be a perfect parent, but I would like to be the best mom for her that I can be.”

Here’s what we know about Tupelo and her name.

Tupelo Was Born to a Surrogate
Keough and her husband, stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen, welcomed Tupelo via surrogate in August 2022. She said her bout with Lyme disease played a role in her decision to hire a surrogate.“I think it’s a very cool, selfless, and incredible act that these women to do to help other people,” she said of surrogacy. “I can carry children, but it felt like the best choice for what I had going on physically with the autoimmune stuff.”

Although she hasn’t discussed her symptoms often, Keough revealed in a June 2023 interview with The Wrap that the disease greatly affected her during filming for Daisy Jones & the Six. “[The disease] makes basic things like getting out of bed and going on a walk challenging,” she said.

Tupelo, Storm, and What They Mean
Tupelo and Storm, respectively, are direct references to Elvis and Keough’s brother, Benjamin, who died by suicide in July 2020 at age 27.

Tupelo refers to the Mississippi city where Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, and lived until he was 13 years old. Keough made sure to point out she and her husband had settled on the name before the June 2022 release of the biopic Elvis, which put the singer’s life and career back in the spotlight. “I was like, ‘This is great because it’s not really a well-known word or name in relation to my family—it’s not like Memphis or something,’” Keough said. “Then when the Elvis movie came out, it was like, Tupelo this and Tupelo that. I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ But it’s fine.”

Storm, meanwhile, was also Benjamin’s middle name. “He, in a lot of ways, felt like my twin,” Keough explained. “We were very connected and very similar. He was much quicker and wittier and a little smarter than me. He was a very special soul.”