The Weeknd Says He May ‘Pull a Ye’ and Legally Change His Name

The Weeknd is thinking about dropping his last name, Tesfaye, and legally changing his full name to just Abel.

Sunday, the “I Feel It Coming” singer tweeted, “You guys are hilarious. I feel like I should change my stage name to ABEL at this point, lol.”

“Maybe pull a YE and just legally change my name to ABEL. No last name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince. I don’t know; it seems like a lot,” he added.

His reference to pulling a Ye refers to a judge‘s approval to change Kanye West’s name to Ye in October. The Weeknd then noted how his name would be written compared to his former stage name.

“ABEL formally known as The Weeknd?” he tweeted, “formerly ***** see this is what I’m talking about @ Twitter.”

He then shared that almost a decade ago,  “The Weekend” was originally going to be the title of House of Balloons. Still, since he “hated my name at the time,” he decided on The Weekend as his stage name and dropped the “e” since a Canadian band had already taken the name.

Last year, The Weeknd told GQ how he has since learned to differentiate between his stage name and real name. “The lines were blurry at the beginning,” he said. “And as my career developed—as I developed as a man—it’s become very clear that Abel is someone I go home to every night. And The Weeknd is someone I go to work as.”