Breaking Bad and Westworld Star Aaron Paul Legally Changes His Name

Breaking Bad and Westworld star Aaron Paul has legally changed his name to... Aaron Paul. If your confused by that, know that Aaron Paul was originally born to the name "Aaron Paul Sturtevant," so this is indeed a significant change, even if the actor's legion of fans have never known him by any other name.

Not only has Aaron Paul made the name change himself, he's gone ahead and extended the change across his entire family. In addtion to Aaron, his wife Lauren Parsekian, their 4-year-old daughter and infant son will all be taking on "Paul" as a last name. The two children were already given the last name "Paul" at birth, but Aaron and Lauren reportedly want to switch the rest of the names for their infant son "Casper Emerson Paul" to a new name, "Ryden Caspian Paul." Documents obtained by TMZ have the couple explaining how they had to fill in a name for the baby's paperwork at birth, but later came up with a name they much more preferred. 

Aaron Paul was born in Emmett Idaho as the youngest of four children in a heavily religion-based family (dad a minister). While there is no public record of friction with his family, Aaron Paul's choice to shed his family name is a curious one. Obviously the actor has been working in Hollywood for so long – and gained so much fame in that time – that his show business name has become a much more present reality than his full Christian name ever was, and no one who has followed Hollywood for any amount of time should be surprised by the idea of an actor changing his/her name. Sometimes is a change like Aaron Paul's (opting to highlight only part of their true name); sometimes the change cements a completely fabricated show name as the new official one, and other times life events like marriages, divorces, or scandals can provoke a change in name to affect a fresh start in the industry. 

Going forward, Aaron Paul looks to be at another career crossroads. As of writing this ariticle, his HBO series Westworld has been cancelled; the show had teased a final season (Season 5) during its Season 4 finale, but it was questionable whether Aaron Paul's character would even return. Paul also dipped back into his Breaking Bad role as Jessie Pinkman to reunite with Bryan Cranston for some key cameos in the final season of Better Call Saul, this year.