Joey Lawrence and brothers trapped in identity crisis

Joey Lawrence recently revealed that his real name is not Joey and he and his brothers wish they could turn back time.

During a panel with PEOPLE’s Dory Jackson at 90s Con on Friday, March 28, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn., the Lawrence brothers, Matthew, Joey, and Andrew, talked about how they got their last name and why they wish they could change it back.

Joey, whose full legal name is Joseph Lawrence Mignogna, said, “It was my middle name. So I was named after our dad and our grandfather on our dad's side.”

The 48-year-old actor and musician went on to explain that when he started acting in the early ‘80s, he was told, “No one can pronounce Mignogna. That's not a name people will say.”

He added, “Today, things like that are celebrated. In the ‘80s, it was like, ‘We're going to need to water this down. There are silent Gs.’”

They decided to use Joey’s middle name, Lawrence, as his last name and when Matthew and Andrew started acting, they used it as well because “it just made sense.”

Matthew articulated that there was a benefit to this, as it helped them have some privacy, saying, “There was an insulation factor. Some people might check in old-school ways, but it would be very, very hard to find us. That was a great thing.”

“Now I’m just stuck with two different names and I can’t travel internationally,” he added.

Notably, all three brothers agreed they wish they had kept their real last name because “it would have made it easier. It’s really a pain in the butt, honestly, like having two names. You have to prove you’re both people."

“Even for a while there, the government only recognized me as Matt Lawrence because I paid taxes from the time I was a toddler to 18 as Matt Lawrence,” Matthew said.

"But really, my name is Matthew William Mignogna. So when I grew up and used my real name on my passport, there was absolutely no correlation. I didn't exist,” he explained.

Before concluding, it is pertinent to mention that the Lawrence brothers played the Roman siblings in the sitcom Brotherly Love from 1995 to 1997.