Rob McElhenney changes his name and issues statement explaining why

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney has announced that he’s changing his legal name and has issued a quick video statement explaining why.

The actor, 48, is best known for his role as Ronald ‘Mac’ McDonald on the beloved FX comedy show, as well as co-owning the Welsh football club Wrexham AFC alongside Ryan Reynolds.

However, it looks like the way we all know and refer to the star is about to change - and his reasoning behind it makes a lot of sense.

Rob took to Instagram on Tuesday (1 July) to post a short video message addressing his fans, where he announced the rebrand.

In the clip, simply captioned: “I said what I said,” he stressed that the announcement would only take up a minute of people’s time.

He went on to drop the bombshell news that from now onwards, his name will simply be ‘Rob Mac’ rather than his original moniker ‘Rob McElhenney’.

For the record, Rob’s surname is pronounced 'MACK-el-hen-ee,’ and as fans will remember, pal Ryan Reynolds even came up with a song to remind people how to say it.

The Always Sunny star admitted that he’s spent ‘literally days of his life’ trying to get people to spell and say his last name correctly - something I’m sure a lot of people can relate to. So, rather than constantly correcting people on their botched pronunciation, the actor has simply made it easier for people by shortening his name.

In the video, he explained: “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.”

Rob went on to clarify: “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.”

He reasoned that it is still his ‘family name’ and he wants to stay connected with his loved ones who share the same surname.

But, justifying his choice, he then joked that the ‘heritage’ doesn’t go as far back as you would expect.

Rob said: “There’s heritage. Except, it’s not even really our f****** 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.”

Giving an example of how his great grandmother had a different surname, he continued: “It was a crazy time but times have changed and most people already call me Rob Mac anyway.

“My family knows me and loves me regardless of how many syllables I have and that’s the only thing I really care about.”

He signed off the video by telling his fans: “There are so many things going on in the world and this is a silly one to continue to waste your time with.

“Honestly, call me whatever you want. Maybe we just keep it simple and try Rob Mac. Let’s see how it goes.”

Away from acting, Rob is involved with More Better Productions, the company behind the docuseries Welcome To Wrexham.

And now, the company has been investing in teams in South America, the actor was reportedly also worried there will be further confusion if he kept his original surname.

Speaking to Variety last month, he explained: “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.”