Macaulay Culkin addresses his 'real name' after unusual change

It's only natural that as the countdown commences until Christmas that we, all of a sudden, see a whole lot more of Macaulay Culkin.

Now, the 45-year-old American actor, who is best known for starring as Kevin McCallister in the hit Home Alone film franchise, recently attended an event celebrating the 35th anniversary of the iconic festive flick at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, California, on Saturday (22 November).

At one point during the appearance, Macaulay addressed the long-running gag surrounding his 'real name' following a very unusual change a few years back.

Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin has addressed the long-running gag surrounding his 'real name' (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

He was asked a question about his 'actual name' at the event, aptly titled A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin, to which he responded: "My name is Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin."

Yep, that's right. The Hollywood A-lister's full legal moniker is simply the name we all know him by - but repeated twice. Macaulay Culkin squared, if you will.

Macaulay then recalled how the name change came about, pointing to a poll where fans got to vote to change his middle name.

Such a poll was announced on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon back in November 2018.

In a post titled, 'Macaulay Culkin Needs A New Middle Name,' Macaulay pleaded with his fans to 'send in some better options' to take to the courthouse so he could 'change [his] middle name to something cool'.

Making a vow to go ahead with the majority vote, Culkin went on to reveal his personal 'favourite five' from the 'hundreds of suggestions' that had been sent in.

The favourites were as follows: Publicity Stunt, TheMcRibIsBack, Kieran, Shark Week and Macaulay Culkin.

Taking them all to a poll on his website, he let his loyal fans vote for the one he should use.

Macaulay asked, and his fans most definitely delivered! (Bunny Ears)

He proposed: "Sure, I might have gold-plated watercraft and chrome-plated invisibility cloaks, but all I want for Christmas is a new middle name. And then you can be all 'Oh, you got your wife a beautiful portrait of your family? Well, I chose Macaulay Culkin’s Middle Name'. And they will cry and cry.

"Don’t be the kind of person who cries on Christmas. Be the kind of person that chooses my new middle name."

The result was Macaulay Culkin, with 60,990 votes.

Then, just a month later, the actor shared on X that the public voted to change his middle name from Carson to Macaulay Culkin, with 60,990 votes, prompting him to legally change his middle name the following year in 2019.

"The final vote was Macaulay Culkin," he continued during this weekend's event. "So my name is Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. If somebody comes up to me at the airport and says, 'Excuse me, are you Macaulay Culkin?' I can say, 'Well, Macaulay Culkin is my middle name.'"

According to the actor, the whole reason behind the bizarre name change was for that 'one joke'.

"I did it all for that one joke. And a bit on Fallon," he reminisced.