Rob McElhenney Defends ‘Kind of Douchey’ Name Change to Rob Mac

Last week, the It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia actor — who was born Robert McElhenney III — filed documents to formally change his name; the process is now underway, per TMZ.

Following some criticism and confusion online, the actor then took to X on Tuesday to explain his decision, in a video he captioned, “I said what I said.”

“I’m going to dedicate exactly one minute to this. Start the clock,” he began in the footage, spending that exact amount of time revealing why he made the decision he did.

“Yes, I’m shortening my name to Rob Mac, mostly a stage name, but I digress. Is it kind of douchey? Sure. But the amount of time I’ve wasted trying to get people to either say or spell my name correctly, is literally days of my life,” he told viewers. “Trust me, I counted it up.”

“It also means thousands of you have had minutes of your life stolen by me, because of my last name, including this one,” he then quipped.

While he said McElhenney is a family name he shares with his loved ones, adding that there’s “heritage” behind it, he then added, “it’s not even really our f–king name.”

As different variations of spellings his ancestors have used flashed across the screen, he said “many generations” have changed it over the years, claiming “the current one was just given to my ancestor by a government official who decided this was now the spelling.”

“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,” he then explained.

“There are so many things going on in the world and this is a silly one to waste your time on. Honestly, call me whatever you want,” he said, before showing photos of other celebrities who go by names they weren’t born with — including Lady Gaga and Jamie Foxx.

“Maybe we just keep it simple and try Rob Mac, let’s see how it goes,” he concluded.

His video comes after a recent Variety interview with his wife, Kaitlin Olson, started to resurface this week — in which they discussed his plan to change his name back in May.

At the time, she said, “The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name. And so do I, legally!”

That wasn’t the only issue she brought up in the interview, either, claiming the two were also “fighting” about whether or not they would show their children’s faces off to the public.

“We’d talked about not showing their faces,” Olsen said. “I remember going through puberty — no kid should be seen publicly before they’re ready to. Everyone’s got their insecurities, and it’s not their fault that we chose this path and that we’re famous. Rob went rogue and put them in a f–king documentary! I’m still unhappy about that.”

He, however, defended himself, saying, “The kids love it. I have a different perspective. Millions of people across the world say, ‘We love to watch them!'”

She was quick to hit back, adding, “I don’t care about them — I care about my kids! We’re still fighting about it.”