Rob McElhenney announces major name change and his wife and kids are extremely 'unhappy' about it

Rob McElhenney has announced a major name change, and a recent interview suggests his wife and children are 'unhappy' about it.

The 48-year-old actor is best known for his role in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He's also made quite the impression in the world of soccer in recent years after becoming the co-owner of Wrexham FC alongside Ryan Reynolds.

McElhenney has been a frequent figure in Hollywood since the 1990s, so it's a rather peculiar move to see the actor change his name after already establishing himself.

Nonetheless, that's exactly what he's done, and it's seemingly a nod to bring him a little closer to his It's Always Sunny counterpart.

According to a report from Entertainment Weekly, McElhenney has legally filed to change his name to 'Rob Mac' - which the actor has already become known by over the years.

Rob McElhenney has changed his name (Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images)

In a May interview with Variety, McElhenney explained that he'd been going by the shortened name for a while, as pronunciation of his birth name had become a problem with international audiences.

"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," the actor explained.

While McElhenney is seemingly happy with his new name, the actor's wife and children are seemingly not best pleased.

Kaitlin Olson told Variety: "The kids are really not happy about it, because they have that last name. And so do I, legally!"

For the record, Rob’s surname is pronounced 'MACK-el-hen-ee', though the actor is seemingly so fed up with everyone butchering his surname that he's decided to simplify it.

Rob McElhenney pictured with his wife Kaitlin Olson in 2023 (Kym Illman/Getty Images)

In a video posted to Instagram, 'Rob Mac' said: "Hi! Okay, I’m going to dedicate exactly one minute to this. Start the clock. 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 that I have wasted trying to get people to either say or spell my name correctly is literally days of my life.”

Speaking further, the actor added: "Trust me, I added it up. Most importantly, it means thousands of you have had minutes of your life stolen by me because of my last name, including this one.

"There’s heritage. Except, it’s not even really our f**king name. 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."