Kanye West has had quite a week. Not only is he preparing for the third ‘Donda’ listening party, and fueding with Drake, he’s trying to change his legal name. TMZ reported Wednesday, August 24th that West filed legal documents asking a judge to change his full name from “Kanye Omari West” to “Ye.” It’s not the first time the rapper has been asked to be referred by Ye but it is the first time he’s tried the legal route, read the details below.
© GettyImagesIt’s likely the judge will grant Kanye’s request. As noted by TMZ, in California, unless there is evidence that the persons requesting to change their name to commit fraud or something else that is illegal the judge will approve it. Kanye has had the name change on his mind for years, back in 2018 ahead of his 8th studio album titled “Ye” Kanye announced on Twitter, “The being formally known as Kanye West. I am YE.” He seems to always get inspired to change his name right before an album release because he tweeted this ahead of his performance at Saturday Night Live, where he was expected to launch his new album “Yandhi.” Just like Donda, Yandhi had an ever-changing release date and the album was renamed Jesus is King and released over a year later.
As far as where the nickname came from, he told Big Boy, “I believe ‘ye’ is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible it means ‘you.” “So I’m you, I’m us, it’s us. It went from Kanye, which means the only one, to just Ye - just being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, everything. The album is more of a reflection of who we are,” the rapper added per BBC.
At the moment, Kim Kardashian still has her name on her Instagram profile as “Kim Kardashian West.” We will have to see if she changes the name considering Kanye doesn’t even want it anymore. Kanye isn’t the first person in Kim’s life to legally change their name to a nickname. One of her best friends formally known as Johnathon Cheban legally changed his name to “Foodgod” back in 2019.
