It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney has filed to legally change his name to Rob Mac, which is how he will be credited in projects moving forward, his representative has confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
The actor has cited global confusion over the pronunciation of his last name as his reason for the change.
“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,” he said in an interview with Variety last month.
The actor and producer’s docuseries Welcome to Wrexham follows the ups and downs of the Wrexham AFC footie club — that’s soccer, if you’re from the U.S. — that Mac and actor Ryan Reynolds purchased in November 2020.
His involvement with the team led his company, More Better Productions, to invest in South American soccer clubs, where his surname, McElhenney, proved to be a conversational challenge.
The struggle was so real that Reynolds unveiled a special musical production for McElhenney’s birthday devoted to teaching fans the pronunciation of his costar’s last name, enlisting the help of some of his famous friends as well as members of the club’s hometown.
“Pronouncing all those Ns and Es and Hs can perplex ’em,” Reynolds sang in the 2023 video. “So here’s a little birthday gift from all your mates in Wrexham.”
Kaitlin Olson, McElhenney’s wife and his Sunny costar, told Variety that her husband’s new moniker will require some adjustments. “The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name,” she said. “And so do I, legally!”
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McElhenney struggled with the decision himself, but his concerns about disrespecting his ancestors receded when he learned that some of his family members had already tweaked the spelling of their surname, or had at least considered it, he told Variety.
The powers that be should have plenty of time to update the title cards on his shows — FX’s Welcome to Wrexham wrapped its fourth season this week and has been renewed for a fifth season, while season 18 of FXX’s Sunny is still in the works.
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