Keke Palmer Reveals Ex Darius Jackson Combined Their Names to Name Their Son, Leodis

Jackson attempted to combine Keke’s birth name, Lauren, with his.

June 14, 2025

(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

Keke Palmer has revealed that her ex-partner Darius Jackson picked the name for their now two-year-old son, Leodis.

Palmer opened up about the name selection process between her and Jackson — whom she previously claimed to have had a “toxic dynamic” — during an appearance on the House Guest podcast. "Darius actually made his name. He wanted both our names, which is so crazy," she said. "So yeah, that was him trying to put like Darius and Lauren, like Leodis, like it was just too much, but I said, 'Hey, let's do it. It's adorable.'”

"I was pregnant, anything went. It's adorable, ... and then also it sounded like an old name," she added. "He sounded like he was marching with [Martin Luther King Jr.]. It's like Leodis Andrellton Jackson. He's gonna be on somebody's campaign."

Last month, Palmer addressed Jackson and their 2023 drama that involved an Usher concert with the release of a new song called “My Confession.” The track, which interpolates a part of Usher’s classic song “Confessions Part II,” features her addressing Jackson and sharing her version of what happened when Usher serenaded her on stage.

“Forty-eight hours later online/Made me a villain for sympathy but you lied/But the truth is in Vegas we was already over, boo,” sings Palmer on the track — referencing the fact that they were already broken up when he went online and chastised her for how she acted at the concert.

Later in the song, she addressed their rocky relationship and the birth of their child, singing, “You almost turned me into a cliché/Thought having your baby would make me wanna stay.”

In case there was any confusion about who she was talking about, Palmer wrote on Instagram that the track was “exactly what it sounds like — me giving voice to the feelings I buried.”

“Sometimes the closure we need doesn’t come from a conversation—it comes from being honest with ourselves,” she added. “That’s what this song is. My peace. My clarity. My way of letting go… I’m not here to play perfect. I’m here to be honest. I’m just here to be Keke.”