Reneé Rapp Says Her Name Was Designed for Pop Stardom

Reneé Rapp is leaning into her identity, her artistry, and the name she says was designed for the spotlight.

During a new episode of the Good Hang podcast with Amy Poehler, the singer and actor opened up about her early path to pop stardom, revealing that her mother, Denise Rapp, deliberately gave her an alliterative name to help her succeed in entertainment.

“My mom chose my first and last name to be—well, okay, arguably chose my first and last name to both have R’s,” Rapp said. “She was like, ‘Alliteration, just in case she wants to be a pop star.’ Like before I was born.”

“She gave you a pop star name just in case, because Reneé Rapp is a huge pop star name,” Poehler responded. Rapp agreed: “It’s a really good one.”

The conversation also touched on Rapp’s experience publicly coming out as a lesbian while appearing on Saturday Night Live in January. She recalled asking the writers to revise a line in a sketch that referred to her as a “little bisexual intern.”

“At that time I was very publicly bisexual,” Rapp said. “In private, I was talking with my girlfriend and a lot of my friends for the last maybe eight months before that of being like, ‘I actually don’t really feel very bi at the moment. I feel very much like a lesbian and it feels so nice and that word feels amazing.’”

“Labeling yourself publicly is really, really, really empowering,” she added. “And also, I think, can be kind of intimidating.” She described the moment as “pretty c—y” and said it felt “so f—ing good.”

Earlier this week, Rapp debuted a new single titled “Leave Me Alone” during her live performance at the 2025 American Music Awards. The fiery, guitar-heavy track addresses her frustrations with fame and references her exit from the now-cancelled HBO Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls.

“Signed a hundred NDAs but I still say something / Leave me alone, b—h, I wanna have fun / Took my sex life with me, now the show ain’t f—in’,” she sings on the chorus.

“Leave Me Alone” marks the first release from Rapp’s upcoming sophomore album Bite Me, which is set for release on Aug. 1 via Interscope. The album follows 2023’s Snow Angel, which debuted at No. 44 on the Billboard 200 and peaked at No. 2 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. The title track also reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart.

Bite Me is out Aug. 1.