Tiye was the daughter of Yuya

Yuya

Yuya was a powerful Egyptian courtier during the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...

 and Tjuyu

Tjuyu

Tjuyu was an Egyptian noble goddess, and the mother of queen Tiye, wife of pharaoh Amenhotep III...

 (also spelled Thuyu). She became the Great Royal Wife

Great Royal Wife

Great Royal Wife or Chief King's Wife is the term used to refer to the chief wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. While most Ancient Egyptians were monogamous, the pharaoh would have had other, lesser wives and concubines in addition to the Great Royal Wife...

 of the Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...

 Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...

.

Tiye's father, Yuya

Yuya

Yuya was a powerful Egyptian courtier during the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...

, was a wealthy landowner from the Upper Egyptian town of Akhmin, where he served as a priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 and superintendent of oxen. Tiye's mother, Thuya, was involved in many religious cults, as her different titles attested (Singer of Hathor, Chief of the Entertainers of both Amun

Amun

Amun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a god in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...

 and Min

Min

Min may refer to:*Min , an Egyptian fertility god*Min , a modern working copy of an Ancient Egyptian ship of Hatshepsut's time*Min , a South Korean celebrity most popularly known as a member of miss A*Min *Min River...

...), which suggests that she was a member of the royal family.

It sometimes is suggested that Tiye's father, Yuya, was of Asiatic or Nubian descent due to the features of his mummy and the many different spellings of his name, which might imply it was a non-Egyptian name in origin.