Ron Artest -- One Month 'til World Peace

Ron Artest is a shameless self-promoter -- because over the last month, he had an L.A. newspaper print FOUR items about his new name ... and it could change the way he's identified forever.

Long story short -- anyone looking to officially change their name in the State of California has to get a public declaration of the name change PRINTED in a local newspaper 4 times -- once a week, 4 weeks in a row.

On July 19th, Ron's LAST declaration to become Metta World Peace was published in the L.A. Daily Commerce -- but the name change won't become official until August 26th ... when a judge is scheduled to sign the order.

Which means you have approximately four weeks to sell your Ron Artest jerseys.