Why The Weeknd Cut the Third ‘E’ From His Name

The Weeknd may be an award-winning singer-songwriter with several albums to his name, but throughout the course of his career, more than a few fans have scratched their heads at that missing “e.” The Canadian musical artist’s, who real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, stage name pays homage to everyone’s favorite time of the week, though its notably spelled with just two “e’s” instead of three, and it turns out there’s a legal reason behind it.

Back in 2013, the same year he released his debut studio album Kiss Land, The Weeknd opened up the why he spells his name without the last “e.” Asked about how he choose his stage name and why he spells it that way, the musician revealed during a 2013 Reddit AMA, according to Just Jared, that the decision to skip the final “e” was due to a copyright issue. Reflecting on the early beginnings of his career, the musician shared that he “left home when I was about 17 dropped out of high school and convinced [high school friend and now creative director] Lamar [Taylor] to do the same. We grabbed our mattresses from our parents threw it in our friends shitty van and left one weekend and never came back home.”

As for his stage name, he revealed that he was going to title his first mix-tape “The Weekend” instead of “House of Balloons,” though he ultimately decided that he liked the name better as a pseudonym. He shared with fans, “”I hated my name at the time though so I tried it as a stage name. It sounded cool.” However, he had to remove the third “e” from the name “because there was already a canadian band named the weekend (copyright issues).”

The topic of The Weeknd’s stage name has surfaced now and again, and most recently made headlines back in December 2020 when singer and actress Dionne Warwick hilariously dragged the musician on Twitter. After dragging Chance the Rapper for his stage name, Warwick wrote, “The Weeknd is next. Why? It’s not even spelled correctly?” Thankfully, The Weeknd kept things light, responding by writing, “I just got roasted by Dionne Warwick and I feel honoured! You just made my day.”

Although The Weeknd has been his stage name for more than a decade now, the musician recently teased a possible name change. Amid his beef with the Grammys over the lack of recognition for After Hours, the musician tweeted, “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.” However, for now, The Weeknd is still known as The Weeknd.