Rob McElhenney Explains 'Douchey' Name Change Ahead Of It's Always Sunny Season 17 Premiere — WATCH
Once you go Mac, you never go back.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney on Tuesday night decided to "dedicate exactly one minute" to explaining his legal name change to Rob Mac, which was first reported by TMZ last week and already has hit FX's splash pages for It's Always Sunny.
I said what I said. pic.twitter.com/lvwKgTBBrx
— Rob Mac (@RMcElhenney) July 1, 2025
"Yes, I'm shortening my name to Rob Mac. Mostly a stage name, but I digress," the actor says in the video above, which he shared on X. "Is it kinda douchey? Sure. But the amount of time that I have wasted trying to get people to either spell or say my name correctly" — as illustrated by a montage he tees up — "is literally days of my life. Trust me, I added it up.
"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," he notes. "Except... it's not even really our f–king name. Not only have many generations changed its spelling" — including to Mclihenny, McElhennie and McElhenney — "the current one was just given to my ancestor by a government official who decided that this was now the spelling," changed from McIlhennie.
"[M]ost people already call me Rob Mac anyway," he says in closing. "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."
In It's Always Sunny Season 17, arriving Wednesday, July 9 at 9/8c on FX, "Ronald 'Mac' MacDonald (Rob Mac), Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day), Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton), Dee Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) return to shamelessly shed their 'niche' label for grander aspirations," says the FX Networks splash page. "They'll exploit cross-network promotion to increase market share; they'll scapegoat one of their own to avoid a PR backlash; they'll risk everything for a handshake with the Saudis; they'll bend the laws with side hustles to pad their pockets; and they'll change everything about themselves to appeal to a broader audience.
"And sure, like any corporate goon, the Gang craves money and parasitic social privileges. That's been plain since 2005," the overview continues. "But they're also human beings. They crave love... respect... conditional freedom... constant adulation... histrionic amounts of attention... non-stop gratification... and unfiltered, slaphappy eroticism. In Season 17, they'll chase down them all."
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