‘Not that I’m ashamed or have disrespect’: Julian Lennon explains why he legally changed his name

Singer-songwriter said that ‘fearful’ scenarios during the pandemic played a role in his decision

John Lennon’s son Julian Lennon has explained why he legally changed his name.

In 2020, the son of the late Beatles star – who is also a musician – changed his name from John Charles Julian Lennon to Julian Charles John Lennon.

During a recent appearance on the podcast Word in Your Ear, he opened up about his decision to change his name, stating that the pandemic played a role.

“It was in 2020, just before we all got locked in a cage that I finally actually decided to legally change my name by default,” he said.

“Because originally my name was John Charles Julian Lennon, and the crap that I had to deal with when travelling and security companies and this and that and the other.”

He continued: “Whenever you had to present yourself, especially on like boarding passes, just as an example, you know they only use your first name, and so it would always be John Lennon, John Lennon.”

The 59-year-old singer-songwriter said that he became “quite fearful and anxious about those scenarios because there would always be wise cracks or jokes and most of the time people didn’t even recognise me”.

“So it became really uncomfortable over the years because I’ve always been known as Julian and so it [being called John] never felt like it was me,” he said.

“So finally I just decided in 2020, ‘Yeah, I wanna be me now. This is it, it’s time for a change.’”

He said that he still wants to “respect the legacy and the wishes” of his parents, John and Cynthia Powell.

“But all I did was switch the ‘John’ and ‘Julian’, so I’m Julian Charles John Lennon. It’s as simple as that, but for me, it’s a whole other world, it really is. Not that I’m ashamed or have disrespect,” he said.

“I needed to be me. I needed to finally be heard as Julian. This is what Julian does, not ‘John’s son,’ so that has been a part of the path and... it just made sense for me.”

Earlier this year, Julian covered his father’s famous song “Imagine”, having previously vowed never to perform it, in order to raise urgent funds for Ukraine.

He releases his new album, Jude, on 9 September.