Frida Kahlo’s first name at birth was Magdalena.
Her full birth name was Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón. She was born in Coyoacán, then a village near Mexico City, in 1907. “Frida” came from the German word for peace and was one of the names given to her at birth.
Kahlo later sometimes represented her birth year as 1910, linking her identity to the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. Official records, however, give 1907 as her birth year. This difference is a frequent source of confusion in biographies and museum captions.
Her father, Guillermo Kahlo, was a German-born photographer, while her mother, Matilde Calderón y González, was Mexican. Kahlo’s naming, family background, and later use of Mexican dress all became important parts of how she presented her identity as an artist.