Destiny wasn’t the only name Miley Cyrus changed in 2008. She also switched her middle name from Hope to Ray, in honor of her grandfather Ronald Ray Cyrus who was a Democratic politician from Kentucky. “A lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray,” her father Billy Ray Cyrus told CNN in 2009, “but that’s not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces.”
Cyrus would go on to change her name for a second time a decade later when she married Liam Hemsworth in a private wedding ceremony in 2018. Speaking on “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” Hemsworth explained his surprise at Cyrus changing her last name. “I honestly think that was one of the best things about it,” he said (via Cheat Sheet). “I didn’t ask her to take my name. And when I asked her, she said, ‘No, of course, I’m taking your name.'” Obviously, she still went as Miley Cyrus professionally, but until the couple divorced in 2020, her legal name was Miley Ray Hemsworth, per Elle.
