Rob McElhenney defends 'kinda douchey' name change
The 48-year-old actor was recently reported to be legally changing his moniker to Rob Mac after years of fans mispronouncing his surname, and now he's defended the decision.
In a tongue in cheek video on X, he said: "Okay, I'm going to dedicate exactly one minute to this. Start the clock.
"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 literally days of my life — trust me, I added it up.
"More importantly, it means thousands of you have had minutes of your life stolen by me because of my last name."
Clips of people messing up his name played in the background, while Rob joked that his wife Kaitlin Olson, who he married in 2008, has also suffered.
The It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia actor continued: "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! 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 then showed an old photo of his great-great-grandmother, with a handwritten caption revealing her name was Bridget McIllhenny.
He said: "[But] times have changed and most people call me Rob Mac anyways.
"My family knows me and loves me regardless of how many syllables I have, and that's the only thing 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."
Late last week, a representative for the Wrexham AFC co-owner - who leads the UK football club with Ryan Reynolds - confirmed he has filed to legally change his name.
From now on, he will be credited as Rob Mac in professional projects.
He first mentioned the idea of the name change to Variety in May, and at the time his wife and Always Sunny co-star Kaitlin Olson admitted she and their children weren't overjoyed by the change.
She jokingly told Variety: "The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name. And so do I, legally!"
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