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Born as Audrey Geraldine Lorde, she chose to drop the "y" from her first name while still a child, explaining in ''[[Zami: A New Spelling of My Name]]'' that she was more interested in the artistic symmetry of the "e"-endings in the two side-by-side names "Audre Lorde" than in spelling her name the way her parents had intended.<ref name=Parks>{{cite web|last=Parks|first=Rev. Gabriele|title=Audre Lorde|publisher=Thomas Paine Unitarian Universalist Fellowship|date=August 3, 2008|url=http://www.tpuuf.org/?p=130|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416144217/http://www.tpuuf.org/?p=130|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 16, 2013|access-date=July 9, 2009}}</ref><ref name=Lorde>{{cite book|last=Lorde|first=Audre|title=Zami: A New Spelling of My Name|url=https://archive.org/details/zaminewspellingo0000lord|url-access=registration|publisher=Crossing Press|year=1982}}</ref>
Lorde's relationship with her parents was difficult from a young age. She spent very little time with her father and mother, who were both busy maintaining their real estate business in the tumultuous economy after [[Great Depression|the Great Depression.]] When she did see them, they were often cold or emotionally distant. In particular, Lorde's relationship with her mother, who was deeply suspicious of people with darker skin than hers (which Lorde had) and the outside world in general, was characterized by "tough love" and strict adherence to family rules.<ref>{{cite book|last1=De Veaux|first1=Alexis|title=Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde|date=2004|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.|isbn=0-393-01954-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/warriorpoetbiogr00deve/page/15 15–20]|url=https://archive.org/details/warriorpoetbiogr00deve/page/15}}</ref> Lorde's difficult relationship with her mother figured prominently in her later poems, such as ''[[Coal (book)|Coal's]]''
As a child, Lorde struggled with communication, and came to appreciate the power of poetry as a form of expression.<ref name="W. W. Norton & Company, Inc">{{cite book|author1=Kimberly W. Benston|author-link1=Audre Lorde|editor1-last=Gates|editor1-first=Henry Louis Jr.|editor2-last=Smith|editor2-first=Valerie A.|title=The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature: Volume 2|date=2014|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.|isbn=978-0-393-92370-4|pages=637–39|edition=Third}}</ref> In fact, she describes herself as thinking in poetry.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Zami, a new spelling of my name|last=Lorde, Audre.|year=1982|isbn=0895941228|edition=First|location=Trumansburg, N.Y.|oclc=18190883}}</ref> She also memorized a great deal of poetry, and would use it to communicate, to the extent that, "If asked how she was feeling, Audre would reply by reciting a poem."<ref name="Audre Lorde's Life and Career">{{cite web|last1=Threatt Kulii|first1=Beverly|last2=Reuman|first2=Ann E.|last3=Trapasso|first3=Ann|title=Audre Lorde's Life and Career|url=http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lorde/life.htm|website=Audre Lorde's Life and Career|publisher=Modern American Poetry|access-date=November 8, 2015|archive-date=November 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121211926/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lorde/life.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Around the age of twelve, she began writing her own poetry and connecting with others at her school who were considered "outcasts", as she felt she was.<ref name="Audre Lorde's Life and Career"/>
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