Home Alone Star Macaulay Culkin Let Fans Pick His New Middle Name And Won't Belieive What They Chose

Macaulay Culkin basically took the most permanent thing about adulthood, his legal name, and handed it to the internet like it was a group chat poll. The Home Alone star decided he was done living with the old middle-name situation, so he asked fans to pick a new one, then actually followed through.

Here’s where it gets weird. Culkin posted that he needed “better options,” sifted through submissions, and narrowed the chaos down to five choices: Publicity Stunt, The McRib Is Back, Kieran (after his brother), Shark Week, and Macaulay Culkin, which is just his first and last name pasted together like a comedy glitch.

Then he put the whole thing to a public vote on Bunny Ears, and Christmas Day turned into a legal-name reveal party.

Macaulay Culkin gave fans the chance to choose his middle name

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Contributor / via Getty Images

He threw out “better options” to fans after realizing he couldn’t even remember his original middle name, which is a bold move for someone who’s been famous since childhood.

Rather than living with this ambiguity, Culkin decided to start fresh and begged fans to send him 'better options'. The concept was simple: maybe someone out there would suggest something genuinely cool that he could actually use.

After sifting through countless submissions in a post titled 'Macaulay Culkin Needs A New Middle Name', the actor presented his top five contenders:

• Publicity Stunt
• TheMcRibIsBack
• Kieran (after his brother)
• Shark Week
• Macaulay Culkin

That last option, simply repeating his own first and last name, somehow made the final cut alongside tributes to fast food promotions and Discovery Channel programming.

He put all five to a public vote on Bunny Ears, letting his audience decide which would become his official middle name.

His pitch to voters leaned into the absurdity: "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 Home Alone star couldn't remember what his original middle name was

20th Century Studios

After Culkin posted his top five contenders, the internet picked between a fast-food moment, a Discovery Channel vibe, and his own full name repeating itself.

It’s a similar kind of emotional boundary when a fed-up woman snaps at her grieving mom over the frozen-in-grief house.

When “Macaulay Culkin” won with 60,990 votes, the winning middle name basically became a loop, because his legal name was set to “Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin.”

When the votes were tallied, "Macaulay Culkin" dominated with 60,990 votes. As a result, his official legal name was set to be "Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin." You can call it a repetitive masterpiece that sounds like a glitch in the matrix.

On Christmas Day, he confirmed the results on X: "Merry Christmas to me, from all of you! My new middle name has been chosen. My new legal name will be: Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. It has a nice ring to it (if you like my name)."

On Christmas Day, he confirmed everything on X, turning a silly fan vote into an official name change right when everyone was already in holiday mode.

Culkin's willingness to let strangers dictate something as permanent as his legal name speaks to either remarkable confidence or a healthy sense of humor about his own celebrity.

The name is certainly memorable, it's weird, and it perfectly captures the strange relationship between celebrities and the public in the internet age. Most importantly, he seems genuinely pleased with it, which is all that really matters.

Now he’s stuck with a legal name that sounds like a prank, and he’s the one who hit “submit.”

Want another messy “accident” story, read about the friend who stole a $300 blazer after years of begging.