‘Dancing with the Stars’: How Chrishell Stause Got Her Unusual Name

Dancing With The Stars Season 29 features a handful of reality stars, including actress Chrishell Stause, who is now featured on Netflix’s Selling Sunset. On the show, the former soap opera star takes viewers behind the scenes of her work as a real estate agent in Los Angeles. The show also delves into the cast’s personal lives. In Season 1, she told fans the unique origin behind her name.

Stause, 39, was born Terrina Chrishell Stause in Draffenville, Kentucky, but she has been credited with her middle name during her career. Chrishell actually tells the story of her birth, Stause explained. Her mother went into labor at a Shell gas station and an attendant named Chris helped her deliver Suase. Her mother combined “Chris” and “Shell” to honor the unusual story behind her birth.

Stause’s mother died after a battle with cancer, the Days of Our Lives actress shared in a tribute on July 18. “In disbelief that you are gone,” Stause wrote, alongside a collection of photos with her mom. “Feeling just about every emotion, but I find comfort knowing Dad is up there taking care of you and showing you the ropes like only he could. Absolutely heartbreaking watching you take your last labored breath, but there is a peace knowing you two are together again, free from the pain that plagued your time here. A free spirit and rebel till the very end.” She thanked the staff at the Ray and Kay Eckstein Hospice Care Center in Paducah, Kentucky for treating her mother.

Stause shot to fame as Amanda Dillon Martin on All My Children from 2005 to 2011. In 2013, she joined Days of Our Lives as Jordan Ridgeway. She left the show in 2015 but made several appearances in 2019 and 2020. Earlier this year, she picked up a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series for Days.

Stause’s appearance on DWTS comes after fans saw how her divorce from This Is Us actor Justin Hartley played out. The ABC competition is part of a new chapter in her life Stause hopes will be positive, she told Entertainment Tonight. “An experience I can kinda throw myself into and just kind of learn a new skill and have fun at the same time,” she said. “I have no dance experience, so it’s going to at least be a laugh for all of us.”

The show will help Sause “turn the page” and “change the narrative” of her life. “So much has been said that there’s nothing else I want to say about [the divorce], and I think that’s a really good place to be,” she said. “I want to be in a place where everybody just moves on. I’m excited to move past that chapter and onto the next.”