ALBAWABA - Yair Netanyahu, the eldest son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has legally changed his name, Israeli media citing official tax documents have said, fuelling speculation about the reason behind the surprise action.
According to Haaretz, Yair Netanyahu’s 2026 tax forms were filed under the name Yonatan Hon but with the identical identification number and residential location used on his prior filings under his original name. Israeli law does not allow a legal name change to be reversed for seven years.
Why they chose to is yet unknown. The name change is said to have recorded with Israeli officials, but the 34-year-old still uses "Yair Netanyahu" on his social media profiles, raising questions as to whether the move is for personal, legal or security reasons.
The new name is a combination of Yonatan, in honor of Netanyahu’s late uncle Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, the Israeli military leader slain in the 1976 Entebbe rescue effort, and Hon, the original surname of his maternal grandfather.
“Hon.” is the internet identity Yair Netanyahu, a right-wing political analyst and podcast presenter who has lived in Florida for several years, has been using. But it is the first time the name has been formally recorded in government documents.
The development is not unheard of in the Netanyahu family. Earlier property records indicated that Netanyahu's younger son, Avner Netanyahu, bought an apartment in London using the legal name of "Avi Segal", later claiming the pseudonym was for security reasons while studying in the United Kingdom.
Even Prime Minister Netanyahu took on a false identity while studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s, identifying himself as "Benjamin Ben Nitai" to make his name easier for Americans to pronounce.
