What’s in a name: Rapper formerly known as Kanye West legally turns into Ye
Meet Ye, the rapper, music producer and clothing entrepreneur you may know under the name Kanye West. A court allowed the entertainer to legally change his name.
A Los Angeles judge last night approved the request to change his name from Kanye Omari West to just Ye, with no middle or last name.
“There being no objections, the petition for change of name is granted,” Judge Michelle Williams Court said in court documents.
The petition filed on August 24 cited “personal reasons”.
He has called himself Ye on his social media pages for years. He tweeted in 2018 that he wanted the change, saying: “the being formally known as Kanye West. I am YE.” The moniker was also the title of his 2018 album.
Ye has said in interviews that, along with it being a shortening of his first name which he likes, it is a word used throughout the Bible.
The 44-year-old is in the middle of a divorce with Kim Kardashian West, who did not ask that her last name be changed back to just Kardashian when she filed to split from him in February. The couple’s four children also have his former last name.