EXCLUSIVE: Why did X:IN’s Aria change her name from Gauthami? Indian K-pop star shares hidden relation to BTS

Aria, the second Indian K-pop idol debuted at the age of 20 years old and is receiving a lot of love from all the world. Here’s what she said about picking her name during a chat with us.

Written by Ayushi Agrawal , Journalist

Updated on May 18, 2023 | 11:23 PM IST | 968.3K

Aria from X:IN: courtesy of X:IN's Instagram

Aria from girl group X:IN entered the world of K-pop just over a month ago and has already made the headlines for multiple reasons. If not for being the second Indian K-pop idol, her beauty caught the attention of not only people in South Korea and India but also across China and other nations where everyone remained in awe of her charms. In an exclusive interview with Pinkvilla, we asked Aria about the process of joining her team and how she came up with the name.

Aria about picking her name

The maknae of the group, Aria spoke to us about wanting to use her name Gauthami due to which she was often referred to as ‘Ami’. However, as the Korean sound for BTS’ fandom ARMY and her name is the same, she was unable to take that plan ahead. The hangul for ARMY and Ami would be ??, which would deter her from using her name in Korean as it has already been registered by HYBE.

In the end, Aria ended up coming up with a list of all the names she thought she could use. After showing it to the group’s producer, when she read out the name Aria, they agreed that it sounded cool, so she decided to go ahead with it.

About X:IN

The five-member group formed by ESCROW Entertainment performed their pre-debut stage with ‘Who Am I’ on March 12, which coincided with Aria’s 20th birthday. She joins members Roa, Chi.U, E.Sha, and Nova in the final lineup which went on to debut with the album ‘Keeping The Fire’ on April 11, 2023. Since then, the members have continued with taxing music show performances and Korean university festival appearances.

The group X:IN is made up of 3 Korean members, Roa who is the oldest, and the leader, Chi.U, and E.Sha. Meanwhile, the other foreign member of the group is Nova, who hails from Russia. During our chat, Aria further spoke about her chemistry with fellow members who helped her overcome homesickness and made her feel comfortable as she settled in a completely new country with a different language and culture than hers.

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