Who Is Nkechi Diallo? Rachel Dolezal Changes Name To African Term Meaning 'Gift Of God'

A white woman who masqueraded for years as a black woman while leading an NAACP chapter and teaching a college course in Africana studies before her lies unraveled in spectacular fashion has reportedly changed her name to an African term. The woman formerly known as Rachel Dolezal was now going by the name Nkechi Diallo.

Her new name has its roots in West Africa and was translated as "what god has given" or the "gift of god," according to the Daily Mail. While the U.K.-based news outlet did not have the most stellar reputation for credibility, Dolezal (or Diallo) seemed to confirm the report in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.

She changed her name in October, according to legal documents the Daily Mail reported to have seen.

Dolezal was living in Spokane, Washington, leading the local NAACP chapter there and teaching at Eastern Washington University when her parents outed her as a white woman who was pretending to be black in 2015. When confronted, she said she was "transracial" and has identified as black since she was five years old. EWU would eventually not renew her contract and she stepped down from her post at the NAACP, leaving her jobless.

Dolezal, 39, has endured ridicule and was reportedly battling homelessness and unemployment in the many months since the discovery of her true racial background was made public. She announced nearly a year ago that she had signed a deal with a publishing house to write a book about racial identity.

Prior to inking her book deal, she said the only job offers she got were in reality television and pornography.

She told the Guardian earlier this month that she had legally changed her name in part to avoid derision, but that new name was never reported until Wednesday. She said she had no regrets for how her intimate biographical details played out in a public forum.

"If I thought it was wrong, I would admit it. That's easy to do, especially in America. Every politician, they’re like, 'I'm sorry' and then they just move on and everybody's like, 'Oh, they apologized and it’s all good'. Five minutes later, nobody remembers it," she told Guardian. "I'm not going to stoop and apologize and grovel and feel bad about it. I would just be going back to when I was little, and had to be what everybody else told me I should be – to make them happy."

Dolezal's book was titled "In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World" and was slated to be released March 28. It was not immediately clear if it would be released under the name Dolezal or Diallo.