Barack Obama reveals his surprising reaction to his daughter Malia's new name

We’ve heard about Michelle Obama’s reaction to her daughter Malia dropping the family surname - but what does her dad Barack make of it?

For those who need a reminder, the Obama couple’s eldest, 26, made the decision last year to go by only her first and middle names for her professional projects.

She went by Malia Ann in the credits of a short film she wrote and directed, called The Heart, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024.

Michelle, 61, shared what she really thinks about Malia’s decision during an appearance on Kate and Oliver Hudson’s podcast Sibling Revelry on Wednesday (4 June).

She revealed that her initial response was to advise: "They’re still going to know it’s you, Malia."

The former First Lady said on the podcast: "Our daughters are 25 and 23. They are young adult women, but they definitely went through a period in their teen years where it was the push away. … They're still doing that."

Barack Obama has revealed what he told his daughter Malia when he learned of her name change (Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images)

She added: “It is very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world, and they don't want people to assume that they don't work hard, that they're just naturally, just handed things."

Michelle explained that Malia and Sasha are ‘very sensitive to that’ and’ they want to be their own people.’

Speaking about Malia’s decision, she continued: "She took off her last name, and we were like, they're still going to know it's you, Malia.

"But we respected the fact that she's trying to make her way."

But, what does dad Barack think?

It turns out that the former US President's initial response wasn’t too different from what his wife said.

Back in October, the father-of-two, 63, opened up on exactly what he said to Malia when she told him.

It comes as mum Michelle also shared her thoughts (Gilbert Flores/Getty Images)

Speaking on The Pivot Podcast, he said: "I was all like, 'You do know they'll know who you are'. And she's all like, 'You know what? I want them to watch [my film] that first time and not in any way have that association'."

He concluded: “So I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that.”

During the podcast episode, he was quizzed on how he and Michelle help Malia and her younger sister Sasha, 23, be their own people.

He explained: "The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all. I mean, they're very sensitive about this stuff. They're very stubborn about it."

Barack also couldn’t help but gush about his daughter’s talents."

"Malia, she's making movies,” he went on. "So she made her first movie, and I'll be a dad, I'll brag a little bit. She's working with Donald [Glover], and you know, her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals—and she didn't use Obama as director on the credits.

"[She was] Malia Ann. She used her middle name and didn't put Obama."