Macaulay Culkin legally changed his name and now it's bizarre

Is it April Fools? Well, even though I can barely keep track of what day it is, or what year it even is at the moment, I can reassure you that it's not the 1 April.

Funnily enough, it isn't April Fools today and neither was it when Macaulay Culkin decided to legally change his name.

In the spirit of Chris... mentioning Macaulay Culkin, here's a clip of the actor in his most famous role:

Too soon? Well, it may only be 1 November, but with Mariah Carey already having defrosted, what better time to reflect on the year fellow Christmas-related star Culkin decided to leave it up to social media users what he should legally change his name to.

The 43-year-old actor took to his website Bunny Ears in December 2018 to argue his 'middle name is something dumb' before asking fans to send in some ideas of what he could change it to.

"My middle name is [...] Larry? Orange? Honestly, I can’t even remember it," he wrote.

"So I asked you all to send in some better options so I can go down to the court house and explain to a judge why I need to change my middle name to something cool."

From the myriad of suggestions, Culkin pulled out five he liked – TheMcRibIsBack, Kieran, Shark Week, Publicity Stunt and Macaulay Culkin.

20th Century Studios

It's safe to say they were all pretty hilarious choices, but only one could be the winner.

The Party Monster star decided to hold a vote, which ran until Christmas Eve, so he could 'wake up to a wonderful present from everyone'.

"Sure, I might have gold-plated watercraft, and chrome plated invisibility cloaks, but all I want for Christmas is a new middle name," he quipped.

And that he did.

Twitter

Taking to X - formerly known as Twitter - on Christmas day that year, he revealed that in 2019, his legal name would be changed to (drum roll)... Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin.

"It has a nice ring to it (if you like my name)," he said.

And he stood by his word, with the actor's Wikipedia page even starting off with 'Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin'.

Although his tweet spread far and wide, it's easy to forget that this actually happened - especially when you consider everything that's gone down since 2018.

One X user certainly hasn't forgotten and is still clearly in disbelief over the whole name change, taking to the platform on 31 October to write: "After an internet vote for a new middle name, Macaulay Culkin legally changed his name to Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin."

And as another user quite rightly noted: "Could have been worse. Much worse."