What’s in a name (change)? For Josh Hines-Allen, it was about roots and recognition

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With a 17 1/2-sack season, a second Pro Bowl appearance and a new contract that made him football’s highest-paid outside linebacker, Josh Allen indisputably had become a big name in the NFL. But not exactly like he wanted.

He often was referred to as “the other Josh Allen,” with the more famous one quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills.

The Jacksonville Jaguars pass rusher and his wife, Kaitlyn, watched highlights of this year’s Pro Bowl Games and listened to a commentator refer to “Aidan Hutchinson and Josh … Allen?”

“It was almost like she was confused about who I was,” he says.

She wasn’t the only one. Kaitlyn wanted to know where her husband’s jerseys were being sold and learned they were as difficult to find as disinfecting wipes during the pandemic. The 27-year-old, five-year NFL veteran and father of three had considered changing his name for a couple of years. Now his wife started pushing for it.

His four older sisters have a different last name, Hines-Allen, incorporating their mother Kim’s maiden name. When Josh and twin brother Isaiah were born, their father, Robert, wanted the boys to be Allens. Kim and Robert divorced when Josh was a baby, and his dad wasn’t around much, so the boys were raised and shaped by Hineses. In his…