Rob McElhenney Reacts to Backlash Over His Name Change
Rob McElhenney is on a quest to end the discussion around his name change.
After raising eyebrows for confirming he legally filed to change his name to Rob Mac, the Mythic Quest actor has spoken out to give a simple yet detailed explanation.
In a July 1 video shared to X, Rob started by letting viewers know he was "going to dedicate exactly one minute" to his explanation, before a timer appeared on screen.
"Yes, I'm shortening my name to Rob Mac," he stated. "Mostly a stage name, but I digress. Is it kinda douchey? Sure. But the amount of time that I have wasted trying to get people to either spell or say my name correctly, is literally days of my life. Trust me, I added it up.”
After pointing out the common mispronunciation of his name, with examples of people doing so, he pointed out he just wants to make it easier on everyone, adding, "More importantly, it means thousands of you have had minutes of your life stolen by me, because of my last name, including this one."
The It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor—who first announced he would go by Rob Mac in May, during a joint Variety interview with his wife Kaitlin Olson—even explained that the family name doesn't have as much meaning as one would think.
“It’s a family name, my grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and I all share it, and I love them and I want to stay connected,” he added. “Except, it’s not even really our f--king name. Not only have many generations changed its spelling, the current one was just given to my ancestor by a government official who decided that this was now the spelling.”
I said what I said. pic.twitter.com/lvwKgTBBrx
— Rob McElhenney (@RMcElhenney) July 1, 2025
The 48-year-old, who co-owns the football club Wrexham AFC alongside Ryan Reynolds, ultimately noted that his new name isn't so new, as it alludes to his It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia character Mac, and many people referred to him by the name anyway.
“Most people already call me Rob Mac anyway,” he concluded. “My family knows me and loves me regardless of how many syllables I have, and that’s the only thing that I really care about. "
He concluded the video, "Honestly, call me whatever you want. Marion, Jerome, Archibald, Eric, Maurice, Stephanie, Frances, Marvin, Gordon or Sam. But maybe we just keep it simple and try Rob Mac. Let’s see how it goes.”
For more celebs who have gotten real about their names, read on.
Sterling K. Brown went by his middle name Kelby until he was a teenager.
"My dad's name is Sterling Brown Jr., my grandfather is Sterling Brown Sr.,” he said during an April 2025 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. "I wanted my own name and it felt like Sterling was an old man's name."
But years after his dad died from a heart attack, the This Is Us alum decided to revert back to his first name as a way to honor his father.
"Because he passed away when I was 10, by the time I turned 16 and I hadn't heard his name for five, five-and-a-half years,” he continued. “I was like, ‘I kinda just want to hear that name again.’ So I asked people to call me Sterling."
Andrew Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence and Joey Lawrence adopted a new last name their careers. Joey—whose middle name is Lawrence—was the first to do so after a talent agent criticized the family surname.
Kat Dennings adopted a stage name at age 9, years before she made her official onstage acting debut on a 2000 episode of Sex and the City.
The 2 Broke Girls alum told Kylie Kelce on the March 13, 2025 episode of her podcast Not Gonna Lie With Kylie Kelce that she didn't think her real name name should "be displayed on a poster."
The actress drew inspiration for her stage name from Christina Ricci's character Kat in the film Casper as well as the surname of Janine Denni, the French wife of late The Black Cauldron author Lloyd Alexander, a writer she said was her mother's best friend.
For more than three decades, Cher was made to believe that her legal first name was Cherilyn. It wasn't until the late '70s, when she obtained her birth certificate in order to change her full name to just Cher, that she discovered that she had been registered as "Cheryl."
In her 2024 memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the pop icon recalled her mom Georgia Holt's reaction to this discovery.
She said her mother, who gave birth to her at age 19, responded, "Let me look at that!" and then, recalling her postpartum experience, added, "I was only a teenager, and I was in a lot of pain. Give me a break."
The outlaw country star adopted Shaboozey as his nickname and later used it as his official alias as a music artist after his Virginia high school misspelled his surname that way.
Congratulations to Post Malone, who incorporated his surname into his stage name. However, the rapper does prefer his close friends to call him by his real name.
During the 2024 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift referred to him as "Austin" when they won the Best Collaboration award for their duet "Fortnight."
Though the singer initially released a Christian album under her birth name in 2001, she felt the stage name Katy Perry—inspired by her mom's maiden name—might meet pop fans more in awe, awe, awe.
Cardi B took on the name Bacardi after family and friends started calling her sister Hennessy. Later on she shortened the name to something that suited her quite a bit more.
Before she became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was briefly known as Rachel.
Shania Twain shared the origin story of her stage name during an appearance on Apple Music's Home Now Radio: "In short, I was born, Eilleen Regina Edwards, and then I was adopted and I became Eilleen Regina Twain. Then I became a professional singer and I needed a stage name that sounded a little less like my grandmother's name, because I'm named after my grandmother, both my grandmothers, Eilleen and Regina. I think, in my mind, I was just not really wanting to be called my grandmother's name onstage, so I decided to change it to Shania Twain. I met somebody with the name Shania, thought it was beautiful, and Shania Twain was born."
The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer’s onstage persona—Chappell Roan—has always been a “drag project,” allowing her to set boundaries and separate her personal life from the industry.
Oddly enough, Gigi Hadid got her stage name in school when the teacher would confuse her and a girl named Helena. Since her mom called her "gigi" as a term of endearment at home, she told the teacher to just call her Gigi and it simply stuck.
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Miley Cyrus' bright smile is what inspired her childhood nickname, Smiley. Eventually the name was shortened to Miley and it stuck.
Apparently the singer looked more like a Bruno than a Peter, so one day his dad started calling him Bruno. Ever since, he has been known as Bruno Mars.
Before the meat dresses and chart-topping music, Lady Gaga was just an everyday girl from New York.
Jason Sudeikis confirmed on Today that he was named Daniel after his father, but following some confusion, his mom started using his middle name Jason to avoid confusion.
Emma Stone ended adopting this stage name after finding out that the Screen Actors Guild already had a member registered under her birthname.
Turns out Reese isn't even Reese Witherspoon's middle name. The actress chose the moniker in honor of her mother, whose maiden name is Reese.
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In 2014, Frank Ocean legally changed his name because, why not?
A little known fact about 30 Rock's Tina Fey is that she is actually named Elizabeth. The comedian made a not so subtle tribute to her birth name by naming her character Liz Lemon.
This pioneer of West Coast rap would later go on to be known as Snoop Dogg.
Turns out the "Royals" singer is really into learning about the aristocracy, hence the reason why she chose the name Lorde, but with a feminine 'e.'
Before he started shaking his bonbon for the masses, music superstar Ricky Martin went by this everyday name.
It's hard to believe that Iggy Azalea was born Amethyst Kelly!
Fans were confused when Taylor Swift thanked then-boyfriend Adam in an acceptance speech, which lead people to the discovery that Calvin Harris is simply a stage name. The DJ told Shortlist magazine he chose the name because his first single was more soulful and wanted something a bit more "racially ambiguous."
Before she became a household name, this was what erstwhile Friend Jennifer Aniston answered to.
Alicia Keys didn't always have such a musical name.
Before he became arguably the biggest movie star in the world, Tom Cruise went by this name.
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