Maybe it’s a stunt and maybe it’s not, but either way it’s real: Rob McElhenney is changing his name to Rob Mac. The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star filed the paperwork to legally change his name in late June and will be credited as Rob Mac in all projects from now on, per Entertainment Weekly. Yes, he’s 48. Yes, he’s been going by Rob McElhenney on all projects since he began his career on a Law & Order episode titled “Thrill” in 1997. But, hey, if a guy wants to change his name to something that sounds more like a McDonald’s order than a name, he has the right to do so.
McElhenney/Mac explained his decision in a video released July 1 on social media, saying that he just wanted to cut down the confusion over how to pronounce “McElhenney” while also acknowledging that the name change is “kind of douchey.” “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 said in the video, adding, “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.” Plus, he claimed that “most people already call me Rob Mac anyway.” Well, most people actually call him “that guy from It’s Always Sunny,” but that’s neither here nor there. And, yes, the character he plays on It’s Always Sunny is, in fact, named Mac (né “Fat Mac”) — notably, It’s Always Sunny’s new season premieres on July 9. This whole thing couldn’t just be a promo for that, right?
I said what I said. pic.twitter.com/lvwKgTBBrx
— Rob McElhenney (@RMcElhenney) July 1, 2025
McElhenney/Mac first told the world about the name change in May, saying it was because of his newfound global business dealings with his company, More Better Industries, which recently purchased soccer teams in Mexico and Colombia. “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 told Variety. His wife and Always Sunny co-star, Kaitlin Olson, said the family wasn’t thrilled: “The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name,” she said in the interview. “And so do I, legally!” But the business deals in Colombia want what the business deals in Colombia want.
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It’s for business purposes.
