Gigi Hadid reveals daughter Khai's Arabic nickname: 'Khaiba is lucky to have an auntie like you'

The tot will also refer to grandfather Mohamed Hadid by the Arabic moniker 'jido', the model has confirmed

Gigi Hadid has revealed her Arabic pet name for daughter Khai. EPA

She sent fans into a tailspin last month when she finally revealed the much-anticipated name of her and Zayn Malik's firstborn: Khai.

But Gigi Hadid this week took to social media to clear up confusion, after some mistakenly thought the moniker was a shortened version of the baby's full name.

The supermodel, who welcomed little Khai in September 2020 with the pop star, referred to her daughter by another name in an Instagram comment spotted by a fan account.

"Khaiba is lucky to have an auntie like you," Hadid's message to friend Olivia Perez read, in a screengrab shared on Twitter.

Speculation ensued that her daughter was, in fact, named after the Arabic word used to express shock or surprise.

However, the model, 25, later revealed in a Twitter reply that the term "is just a nickname".

Her daughter's name is already a nod to Hadid's Arab heritage, reportedly a tribute to her Palestinian grandmother, Khairiah, the mother of real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid.

The name also has Arabic links, with Khai translated to mean "crowned" or "royalty" in English. The full name of Khairiah, meanwhile, means "good" and "charitable".

Both Hadid and Malik have had their daughter's name tattooed on them in Arabic since her birth.

Hadid, who shared few details during her pregnancy, also opened up about her labour and delivery in a new cover shoot with Vogue.

The model told the fashion magazine that she welcomed her firstborn at her family's rural property in Pennsylvania, US, with Malik, 28, mother Yolanda, sister Bella and a midwife on hand.

"I had to dig deep. I knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, 'This is what it is'. I loved that," she said.

"I know my mum and Zayn and Bella were proud of me, but at certain points I saw each of them in terror," she continued. "Afterward, Z and I looked at each other and were like, 'We can have some time before we do that again.'"

Hadid also confirmed her father will be known as jido, the Arabic moniker for grandfather, by her daughter. Her Dutch mother will be known as oma, while Malik's Pakistani father will go by the Urdu term abu.

News of Hadid's pregnancy was first revealed in April, and the model later confirmed the news to US chat show host Jimmy Fallon, saying the couple were “extremely happy and excited”.

The model and Malik have been in an on and off relationship since 2015. They broke up for a period in 2018, but it was confirmed they were back together in December 2019.