For many seasons, MacGyver's full name remained a mystery to friends of Mac and fans of the show. Whenever he was asked about it on the series, our creative detective would simply say he doesn’t like his first name or dismiss it altogether. 

It wasn’t until the final season of the series in Good Knight MacGyver that we found out Mac’s first name was Angus.

While fans were excited to finally have this mystery solved, Angus wasn’t the first choice. Writing the pilot episode for the series, producer Henry Winkler named the iconic character after his wife, Stacey Weitzman.

"We didn't have a first name for him for the longest time and Henry tried to straight out name him after his wife. It was Stace for a while, but that just didn't fly," said Richard Dean Anderson.

Stace MacGyver would be used as a stand-in title for the character in the initial scripts of the series. Knowing they didn’t want to keep Stace, the name was changed to ‘MacGyver’ until a first name was finally found.

Richard Dean Anderson would be the one to finally discover the long-awaited first name. Making an appearance at a celebration for firemen and policemen in Vancouver, Anderson stumbled upon a poster for the town mayor.

"It was at a big stadium and there was a huge LED board screen that was flashing what I think was the mayor's name, Angus Reid. I got mesmerized by it and realized that had to be MacGyver's first name. I ran it past our executive producer and his jaw dropped. It was the perfect name – Scottish and proper."

In the reveal, MacGyver learns of a 7th-century man, Angus M'Iver, and states they share a name. His name would not be mentioned again until the series finale where his son is introduced and also has Angus for his middle name.