Vince Gill Reveals the Song That Inspired His Daughter’s Name—and the Phone Call That Convinced Amy Grant He Wasn’t Crazy

Vince Gill has two children. First, he and his first wife, Janis Oliver had Jennifer who is now 42 years old. Then, he and Amy Grant had Corinna who is now 23 years old. Both of Gill’s daughters followed in their father’s footsteps and became musicians. The “One More Last Chance” singer opened up about the origins of his youngest daughter’s name in an interview shortly after she was born.

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Back in 2002, The Today Show conducted an interview with Gill with all of the questions coming from members of his official fan club. The questions ranged from music to family and touched on nearly everything in between. A fan named Sheila asked, “I would like to know where you got your daughter’s name from? I have a daughter also named Corinna (our spelling) and she was named after a song—‘Corinna, Corinna.’”

Vince Gill on the Origin of His Daughter’s Name

“Yeah, same song,” Vince Gill replied. “I first heard this song by Bob Wills and was just thumbing through some names in one of those books that has a million names in it, and was kind of struggling to find a name and I told Amy about this name, Corrina,” he recalled. “Amy looked at me like I was crazy but then I told her, ‘This baby has got some pretty neat sass to her.’ She’s got black hand and lots of it and she kind of looked like a party waiting to happen,” Gill added, laughing.

However, it wasn’t Gill who convinced Amy Grant to go with the name Corrina. Instead, it was her father. “She called her Dad and Dad asked her what we were thinking about naming the baby, and she told him, ‘Oh, we’re thinking about Corrina,’ and he started singing ‘Corrina, Corrina’ and she was hooked,” Gill explained.

The Song That Sparked the Name

The song that inspired Vince Gill’s daughter’s name is an old one. “Corrine, Corrina” or “Corrina, Corrina” was first recorded by Bo Carter in 1928. Several other artists recorded it in different styles including jazz, blues, and country. Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies recorded the first Western swing version of the song in 1934. Six years later, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys recorded the version Gill referred to in the interview. Their recording made “Corrine, Corrina” a Western swing standard.