Rob McElhenney defends changing his name

Rob McElhenney has defended his decision to change his last name.

The It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator and actor recently filed legal papers to change his name to Rob Mac.

Defending his decision in a light-hearted video on X, McElhenney acknowledged that it was "kinda douchey" before explaining why he wanted to shortening his last name.

"Hi! Okay, I'm going to dedicate exactly one minute to this. Start the clock," McElhenney said in the video as a 60-second timer appeared on screen. "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. Trust me, I added it up."

The Welcome to Wrexham star then explained that his last name has gone through many spelling changes over the generations, and the current spelling was "given to (his) ancestor by a government official".

He continued, "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 that I really care about."

Concluding his fast-paced monologue, McElhenney told viewers, "Honestly, call me whatever you want.... but maybe we just keep it simple and try Rob Mac? Let's see how it goes."

The 48-year-old first revealed his intention to change his name in an interview with Variety in May. He explained that it would make his life "simpler and easier" as most people already call him Rob Mac.