Rob Reiner Once Wanted to Change His Name Because of His Famous Dad
- - Rob Reiner Once Wanted to Change His Name Because of His Famous Dad
Victoria MillerDecember 17, 2025 at 9:28 PM
0
Photo by MARK RALSTON on Getty Images
Rob Reiner grew up in the shadow of his famous father, Carl Reiner. The legendary Reiner patriarch, who died in 2020 at age 98, was a pioneering television and movie actor and producer, appearing in the groundbreaking 1950s variety show, Your Show of Shows, writing and creating The Dick Van Dyke Show, and directing films such as Oh God and The Jerk.
Rob Reiner died tragically on Dec. 14, 2025, at age 78. Three months before his death, he reflected on growing up in the shadow of a Hollywood legend.
During an appearance on Ted Danson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Reiner shared a story about asking to change his name as a child.
“My folks told me this story. I don't remember doing it, but they said that one day I came to them, I was eight years old at the time, and I said to them, 'I want to change my name,' " Reiner told Danson. “And they thought, 'Oh, this poor kid. He's worried about being in the shadow and having to live up to his father and all this.' So they asked me, they said, 'Well, what do you want to change your name to?' And I said, 'Carl.’”
“So obviously, I looked up to him. I thought he was the greatest. I mean, he is, he was," he said of his father. "He was a genius and he was brilliant and he had, you know, the Van Dyke Show is to me still one of the best sitcoms ever made, and it was groundbreaking at the time, so I wanted to be him.”
Carl Reiner once shared the story in an interview posted by the Television Academy Foundation. The Dick Van Dyke Show creator recalled that Rob told his mom, Estelle, that he wanted to change his name. “He was about five or six years old, and he had just taken a bath, and my wife was combing his hair, and he was looking in the mirror and he thought he looked pretty handsome. And he said, ‘I want to be an actor, I want to change my name.’ And my wife said, ‘Gee that's so sophisticated…what do you want to change it to?’ He said ‘Carl.’”
“You always want your kids to go in your business; they're saying they're not ashamed of what you do for a living,” Carl added. “I mean bankers want their kids to be bankers.”
Rob Reiner would go on to follow in his father’s footsteps as a highly successful actor, screenwriter, and director behind films such as The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, and This is Spinal Tap.
Speaking with Danson, he revealed he learned a lot by watching his father when he was a kid. "I'd watch how he worked with the actors and rewriting and all, and how they positioned the cameras and everything,” Reiner said. “It was like school for me. I think I was probably a pain in the to him because who wants... it was like 'bring your kid to work' day, every day.’”
🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬
This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
