Entertainment

Macaulay Culkin shares story behind his name change with fans

November 25, 2025 12:00 pm

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Macaulay Culkin has proven that he has true dedication when it comes to committing to a bit.

At a recent Saturday stop on his A Nostalgic Night With Macaulay Culkin tour, the Home Alone star reminded his fans that they had been part of his decision to change his “actual name” while celebrating the 35th anniversary of the beloved 1990 film in which he starred as the young Kevin McCallister.

“My name is Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin,” he told the audience at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, Calif., per PEOPLE. He refreshed their memory on the poll he announced on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in November 2018, where fans got to vote to change his middle name.

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As Culkin recalled, the poll posted to his lifestyle website, BunnyEars.com, prompted fans to revise the actor’s middle name as part of the bit between him and Fallon. And as he reminded those attending the nostalgia tour, the options ranged from “The McRib Is Back” to “Kieran” — a nod to his award-winning brother, Kieran Culkin.

“Macaulay Kieran Culkin. That would be great. I love my brother. Between me and him we have exactly one Oscar,” the father of two quipped, referring to Kieran’s Oscar win in March for his performance in A Real Pain. (The win led to Kieran and his wife, Jazz Charton, fulfilling the unofficial public pact the couple made after he won an Emmy, that if he won an Oscar, she would “give” him a fourth child.)

A month later, on Christmas Day, Culkin shared on Twitter (now X) that the poll had closed and the public chose to change his middle name from Carson to Macaulay Culkin.

“It has a nice ring to it (if you like my name),” the actor wrote.

“So my name is Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin,” the star said to his laughing audience at Saturday’s screening event. “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.'”

The Uncle Buck actor admitted he did it all for a good laugh. “I did it all for that one joke. And a bit on Fallon,” he explained.

During his visit on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2018, Culkin told the host, “I was staring at my passport recently and stuff, and I was looking over my middle name. And I felt like, you know, I should probably spruce up my name a little bit.”

At the time, he shared that his partner Brenda Song suggested the final option on the poll, Publicity Stunt.

Considering the possible choices Culkin could have gone with, it’s safe to say Song is probably relieved fans voted the way they did.

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