Almost every dad has a nickname for his little girl. Once in a while, it comes straight out of a bedtime story.
That’s what Michael Jackson did.
Paris Jackson, born April 3, 1998, is Michael’s only daughter. She’s the middle of his three children, with her big brother Prince older and her little brother Bigi, once called Blanket, younger. To the world she was Paris. At home, her dad sometimes called her something else.
To understand where the name came from, you have to know about the story Michael loved most. It was “Peter Pan,” the tale of the boy who never grows up and lives on a magical island called Neverland. Michael loved it so much he named his ranch Neverland after Peter’s island.
So when it came time to pick a pet name for his only girl, he reached for that same story.
In 2017, Rolling Stone ran a cover story on Paris by writer Brian Hiatt. In it, the magazine reported: “Michael, who saw himself as Peter Pan, liked to call his only daughter Tinker Bell.”
Tinker Bell. Peter Pan’s tiny, glowing fairy friend, the one who’s always flying right beside him.
It’s a perfect fit when you think about it. If Michael was Peter, then his little girl was the sparkle who went everywhere with him.
And that story didn’t fade away as Paris grew up. In that same Rolling Stone story, the magazine listed her tattoos. One of them reads “faith, trust and pixie dust.”
Anyone who grew up with Disney’s 1953 “Peter Pan” knows where that comes from. It’s the famous line from “Peter Pan,” when Peter tells the Darling children that all it takes to fly is faith and trust and a little bit of pixie dust. That dust belongs to Tinker Bell.
So years after her dad gave her that nickname, Paris carries a piece of the same story on her skin.
She’s talked about him warmly in her own words too. On the “Call Her Daddy” podcast this year, Paris didn’t hold back about how close they were.
“I definitely was Daddy’s little princess,” she said.
She also described him simply: “Really funny guy. That was my best friend.”
You don’t often hear the King of Pop described as a funny guy. But that’s who he was to the little girl he called by a fairy’s name.
Paris is grown now, and so are her brothers. Here are all three of them together on a London red carpet for “MJ The Musical,” the stage show about their dad, and it’s a lovely chance to see his kids side by side.
Prince, Paris and Bigi Jackson at “MJ The Musical” in London
Watching them, it’s hard not to think of the ranch Michael named after a storybook island.
He saw himself as Peter, and he wanted his little girl right there in the story with him. She still has a line from it with her today.