Jeff Bezos was born Jeff Jorgensen — What’s his ethnicity and who are his real parents?
Love him or hate him, you’ve most likely heard of Jeff Bezos. The man behind Amazon – the largest e-commerce space in the world – has revolutionized retailing and completely changed the way people shop. But while so many people know about Jeff’s company, earnings, and net worth, many have questions about his personal life.
Plus, Jeff also has many wondering about his ethnicity. So, let’s learn more about where Jeff Bezos is from and about his family life.
What is Jeff Bezos’s ethnicity?
Billionaire Jeff Bezos may be one of the richest men in the world, but his childhood wasn’t so different from anyone else’s. Jeff was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, N.M., to Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen and Ted Jorgensen.
Jeff’s father’s family was originally from a small island called Samsø, which today is a municipality of Denmark. The family immigrated to Chicago in 1990, where Jeff’s father Ted was born.
It’s unclear where exactly in the U.S. Jeff’s mother, Jacklyn Bezos (née Gise), was born, but it was most likely in Washington, D.C., where her father worked as an administrative assistant in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Jacklyn’s family had been in the U.S. for a few generations by the time she was born, but with the family name Gise, her ancestors most likely originally immigrated to America from England, where that name first appeared in 1066.
Unfortunately, Jeff’s parents only stayed together for a year after Jeff was born. Sometime later, while attending night school, Jacklyn fell in love with a classmate, Miguel “Mike” Bezos, an immigrant from Cuba.
Jacklyn and Mike married in 1968 and moved to Houston. Soon after the wedding, Mike also adopted Jeff as his own son, and the 4-year-old’s last name was officially changed from Jorgensen to Bezos.