Kanye West officially changes his name to Ye

The artist formerly known as Kanye West will now be officially known as simply Ye.

A Los Angeles judge granted the rapper’s name change request, a communications official at the Los Angeles Superior Court confirmed.

The 44-year-old star filed the request in August, citing “personal reasons”.

The rapper, best known for hits like Gold Digger and Stronger, already used Ye as his nickname and in 2018 used it as the title of the album.

Shortly after the album was released, he tweeted: “Being formally known as Kanye West. I’m YE.”

He has now made it official and his former full name – Kanye Omari West – is gone.

While his Twitter account was already Ye, his Instagram account and website were still using his former name as of Tuesday.

In addition to being a shortened version of Kanye, the new moniker also has religious significance for the star.

“I think ‘you’ is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible it means you. So it’s you, it’s us, it’s us,” he said in a 2018 interview with radio host Big Boy.

“He went from being Kanye, which means the only one, to simply being Ye a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, our all.”

Ye released his latest album Donda in August, featuring 27 tracks with a duration of two hours.

He later claimed that his label, Universal Music Group, had released his 10th studio album without his approval.

Other artists like Prince, Snoop Dogg, and Sean Love Combs have changed their names over the years, some multiple times.

Ye made headlines earlier this year after splitting from his wife of nearly seven years, Kim Kardashian.

The couple, who have four children together, are among the most recognizable stars in the world. Their marriage was one of the most followed celebrity relationships of the last few decades.

The news followed Ye’s ill-fated run for the U.S. presidency in 2020.