Another called dropping a surname “just for a new era” an “iconic move.”
For now, however, those remain fan theories.
Miley has not officially explained whether “MILEY” signals a permanent professional name change or simply the branding attached to a new artistic chapter.
But there is something especially fitting about the possibility.
Miley has reinvented her name before.
She was born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992.
Her parents, Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus, chose the name because they believed their daughter was destined to bring hope into the world.
But as a young child, she smiled so frequently that the family began calling her “Smiley.”
That eventually became “Miley.”
Tish previously explained the nickname during an appearance on the “Tea Time with Raven & Miranda” podcast.
“She always smiled when she was little, so we would call her smiley Miley, and it just stuck,” she recalled.
Eventually, the nickname became much more than a family term of affection.
