Rob McElhenney, who recently filed to legally change his name to Rob Mac, has defended his decision saying he has wasted too much time “trying to get people to either say or spell my name correctly”.
The 48-year-old It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator and star said his old name has been misspelled far too many times, sharing a montage of all the incorrect pronunciations, in a video posted on X.
“Yes, I’m shortening my name to Rob Mac. 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 say or spell my name correctly is days of my life,” he started off.
He said while he wanted to stay connected to his heritage, the present iteration of his name was just one given “by a government official who decided that this was now the spelling”.
“Still, 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. There’s heritage. Except it’s not even really our f****** name,” he said.
“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.
He said most people in his life referred to him by Rob Mac, and his family cared about him regardless of his name.
“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. There are so many things going on in the world, and this is a silly one to continue to waste your time with. Honestly, call me whatever you want.”
McElhenney’s company, More Better Productions, which was behind the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham, has been investing in teams in South America, where he’s concerned there’ll be struggles with his multisyllabic name.
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Speaking to Variety last month, McElhenney explained: “As our business and our storytelling is expanding into other regions of the world and other languages in which my name is even harder to pronounce, I’m just going by Rob Mac.”
McElhenney’s wife, It’s Always Sunny co-star Kaitlin Olson, has shared that their two sons were less enthusiastic about the name change.
“The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name,” she said of the decision. “And so do I, legally,” she added, despite keeping Olson as her on-screen moniker.
The shortened version of McElhenney’s surname brings him closer to his Always Sunny character – whose name is Mac – which he has played since the comedy series’ launch in 2005.
