Why is Obama’s daughter dropping her last name?

Barack Obama’s daughter Malia is the talk of the internet due to “changing her middle and last names” in the credits of a short film she directed for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Barack’s eldest daughter, Malia Obama later revealed the reason behind the name change in question was that she didn’t want to take away the attention of the short film she directed because of her internationally recognizable last name.

Why is Barack Obama’s daughter dropping her last name?

According to The Cut, a person with a sharp eye noticed that a short film under the name of The Heart featured Malia in its credits scene but as “Malia Ann”. The short in question debuted on Jan. 18, 2024, and received mixed reviews from critics as they judged Malia. they added that the only reason she was able to work on projects this big, was because of her parents’ connections.

According to E!, Malia will be known as “Malia Ann” for now in her professional life at least.

Being the daughter of the ex-US president, it’s understandable why Malia wants to create some kind of distance between her and her famous parents. American actress and comedian, Whoopi Goldberg slammed the comments by critics and users alike and said:

“Why do you care what she calls herself? If she wanted to call herself Jeanette McDonald, she has the right to! If I can be Whoopi Goldberg, she can be whoever the hell she wants to be!”

Conspiracy theories are surrounding Malia Obama on X

Users on X (formerly Twitter) took to a post made by Dom Lucre who captioned it with “So many people won’t understand this article but they should.”

Here’s what some had to say:

Several users claimed as well that Malia is “not Barack and Michelle Obama’s blood daughter” with pictures from the past of Malia with different individuals as a child. Other users snapped back at them and said “People are posting anything for engagement nowadays” with a GiF saying that this is “fake” and only for engagement purposes.

And “Let’s clarify, she’s not changing anything, she’s going by her first and middle name for professional purposes only”.