Rob McElhenney has confirmed the reason behind his name change in a video statement on social media.
The actor, 48, best known for playing Ronald “Mac” McDonald on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and for co-owning AFC Wrexham with Ryan Reynolds, took to Instagram on July 1 with a short video message.
He announced: "Hi! Okay, I’m going to dedicate exactly one minute to this. Start the clock. Yes, I’m shortening my name to Rob Mac.”
In a clip simply captioned: “I said what I said,” Rob explained: “Mostly a stage name, but I digress. Is it kind of douchey? Sure. But the amount of time that I have wasted trying to get people to either say or spell my name correctly is literally days of my life.”
He added: “Trust me, I added it up. Most importantly, it means thousands of you have had minutes of your life stolen by me because of my last name, including this one.”
Fans will remember that his surname is pronounced “MACK-el-hen-ee,” a point so confusing that Ryan Reynolds once made a song to help people pronounce it.
Rob explained that while it is still his “family name,” he wants to stay connected to his heritage: “There’s heritage. Except, it’s not even really our f****** name. Not only have many generations changed the spelling, the current one was just given to my ancestor by a government official who decided that this was now the spelling.”
He continued: “It was a crazy time but times have changed and most people already call me Rob Mac anyway. My family knows me and loves me regardless of how many syllables I have and that’s the only thing I really care about.”
Rob closed the video with: “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. Maybe we just keep it simple and try Rob Mac. Let’s see how it goes.”
According to TMZ, Rob has filed documents in Los Angeles to legally change his name from “Robert McElhenney III” to “Rob Mac.” The move is not just about simplifying his public persona but also for practical reasons tied to his growing business empire.
“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,” Rob told Variety in May.
Not everyone in Rob’s world is on board with the name change. His wife and It’s Always Sunny co-star, Kaitlin Olson, admitted to Variety: “The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name. And so do I, legally.”
Still, those who know Rob see this move as another example of his proactive nature.
FX boss John Landgraf told Variety: “This is a guy who just wants to do something, or sees that something needs to be done, and then just figures out how to do it.
"If he decides, ‘I want to buy an old soccer team in the U.K. with Ryan Reynolds,’ they go out and find a team. Now, the king of England and the prince of Wales are coming to the place. That’s magic.”