Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ daughter reveals they were not allowed to use his last name in school

Bill Gates

Growing up as the daughter of one of the world’s richest and most recognisable people might sound glamorous. But for Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, childhood looked surprisingly normal—because her parents made a very deliberate decision to keep the “Gates” name out of the picture.

In a recent episode of her podcast The Burnouts, the 22-year-old entrepreneur and Stanford graduate revealed that she and her siblings were not allowed to use their famous last name during their early school years. Instead, they went by their mother Melinda’s maiden name, French.

“My parents were really intentional about making sure we didn’t use my dad’s last name until high school,” Phoebe said. “And it really allowed me to make friends in a really authentic way.”

The idea came from Melinda French Gates, long before her 2021 split from Bill. In a recent Vogue interview, Melinda explained that she had seen up close how children from wealthy families often grew up feeling entitled or disconnected from reality. She wanted her own kids to have a grounded upbringing—one that reflected the middle-class values she was raised with.

To keep things low-key, Melinda even avoided letting Bill drop the kids off at school in the early weeks, worried that his presence would instantly spark attention. The goal wasn’t secrecy, she said, but space: space for the children to grow without being defined by their father’s wealth, power, or last name.

Phoebe agrees. On her podcast, she said that having the Gates name from the start might have changed the way people treated her. “I don’t think it would have been good for me to be fully in the spotlight as a child,” she said.

The “last-name rule” wasn’t permanent, though. Melinda told Elle earlier this year that each child was allowed to choose which surname felt right for them once they were older. Her eldest daughter decided to use Gates, her son continued with French, and Phoebe eventually switched to Gates in high school.

Of course, the legacy of the Gates family is impossible to ignore. Bill Gates still lives in his massive 66,000-square-foot home on Lake Washington—complete with six kitchens, an indoor pool, and even a trampoline room. But for Melinda, shielding her children from that image during their early years was intentional. They would inherit the wealth eventually, she said, but they didn’t need to inherit the weight of the name too soon.