My wife always went by her middle name and never used her first. When we married, she dropped her first name, took her middle name as her first, her maiden name as her middle name, and my last name as her surname. In other words, she went from “A. Peggy Wanker” to “Peggy Wanker Tildrum.”
I did a name change. My childhood went divorce #1, adoption, divorce #2, divorce #3, then finally adulthood. By that time I was packing around a defunct ‘family’ name that I had no connection or obligation to. I changed to the original family name of someone who I was a blood-relation to.
Let’s see… I know a couple who, when they married, instead of either taking the other’s name, combined their names into one (not hyphenated), and then both took that.
One of my cousins, born when his mother was single and who hence took her maiden name as his last name. When his mother later married, he took his stepfather’s last name as a new middle name.
Said stepfather later (after divorcing my aunt) came out as transsexual, and changed her name first to a feminine form of the same name, and then to something completely different that isn’t usually a name at all. Though at the wedding of one of their other sons, she still introduced herself as “father of the groom”.
One of my mom’s neighbors also recently came out as transsexual, and changed her masculine name to the feminine form of the same name. I don’t know if either of these last two have gone through all of the paperwork for it yet, though.
I’ve also known a number of divorced women who have reverted to their maiden name.
When my paternal-line ancestors came over from Germany, they kept the spelling, but changed the pronunciation to match English pronunciation rules. A different branch of the family, much better-known, kept the pronunciation and changed the spelling to match.
On the other hand, I know a couple of people who changed their first and middle names as part of female to male gender reassignment, and they had no trouble at all.
Other than people who changed their names due to marriage, divorce, adoption, etc. I can only think of one. My old neighbor has always been called by a diminutive of her first name, and decided to legally change it to that diminutive a couple years ago.
I know someone who changed her first and middle name twice. The originals were too obscure and difficult to pronounce, so she changed them to something very common. But then she found she didn’t like having a very common name, so she changed it again to something unusual but not too unusual. So far that seems to be working out.
A guy in the SCA who changed his mundane name to his (ancient Roman) SCA name.
Also worked with a woman who, back when Dances with Wolves came out and people were jokingly making up Native American for themselves (“Wears a Black Shirt”; “Forgets his Keys”) changed her name to Kindred Warrior.
As an addl hint, she was born in Wanker County, Wisconsin… maybe her family owned the county, or they were the only family for miles around…
My wife changed her first name before we met. She found out she was named after the woman her dad left her mother for.
My dad used to be J R Faulkner. He legally changed it to J R R Faulkner. Yes, he is a Tolkien nerd.
A high school friend hated his father, and the feeling was mutual.
After graduation, he went off to university, and changed his name, so as to not be reminded of his father, even by name. His new name had no relation to his old one–I believe he opened up the phone book and picked a name at random.
I knew a guy who found out as an adult that his bio-dad was someone other than who he was told. He didn’t have a good relationship with who he thought was his father and he hit it off right away with his actual bio-dad once they met. The guy changed his last name to that of his actual bio-dad.
I took back my maiden name after I got divorced but that’s not very uncommon.
A friend of mine grew up with a name that is generally comic fodder and has unattractive stereotypes attached to it. When she left for university she started using her middle name, which was the third most popular name the year she was born. Later she legally had the order changed. She still has the dreaded name buried deep as a middle name.
My daughter’s in-laws chose a completely different last name when they married, as neither felt close to their birth families. It is a color, very pretty. My daughter’s first name is also a color, so now she has a very colorful name. It makes people smile. My son wants to change his name when he turns 18. He is a III, hates it, and feels no affinity to his father’s family, says he isn’t close to mine either (and I’m the only one with my maiden name, others are married or dead). He doesn’t know what he wants to change it to. I only hope IF he still feels this way in a few years that he chooses something he won’t regret.
I enjoy reading the legal notices of name changes in the newspaper. While many are most likely due to marriage/divorce, adoption, or gender change, some are just plain whimsical. When someone with a common first/middle/last name changes it to Fox Journey-Boheme Clarehaven, it has to be for some other reason.
I swapped my first and middle name when I was 17.
When I was born, my parents named me after my deceased maternal grandfather and a favourite uncle in Jewish Askenazic tradition. My initials happened to form a body part, think “ARM” or “TOE”. My lawyer father kept looking at his monogram on his briefcase and didn’t want me saddled with these initials, so without consulting my mom he swapped them on the birth certificate.
There may have been nights sleeping on the couch for my dad, but I ended up using my official middle name as my first name as originally intended. When I was 17 I found out that I could switch it back for free as long as I was a minor and had parental permission so I did and for the last 30 years my name and birth certificate have matched!
My cousin changed his first name from an uncommon first name that was similar to a common first name to a diminutive that worked for either that he’d always been called.
I changed my last name when I was 23. My original last name was that of my father and I did and still do hate him due to his violence, I always hated my last name due to being teased about what it rhymed with when I was younger and my hatred of it grew as I did and realised what an awful excuse for a human my father is. My name was a constant reminder that I was related to the person I hate most in the world.
My parents divorced when I was 18, I had contact with my father until I was 22 - he proved to be the monster that I thought he was and I disappeared, I had told him I was moving house and forgot my new address, but I would call him when I got there, I never called or contacted him.
My original last name was very uncommon and after he tried to contact me out of the blue, I decided to change my last name. I was heading into a city hospital for a medical procedure anyway and decided to go early so I could go into the Births, Deaths & Marriages office and change my name. I chose my maternal grandmother’s maiden name, as we were very close.
One of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.
I felt safe from being found out of the blue for a long time. He did end up tracking me down on Facebook about 8 years ago. Although it was distressing, I was strong enough to contact him by then. I sent him a 2 page message outlining some of the reasons why I didn’t want contact with him and he hasn’t bothered me since. Very cathartic.
An old friend of mine and his wife also combined names when they got married, but they do use a hyphen. Jim True-Frost (Prez from The Wire) also got his compound name when he married. True-Frost is a really cool name.
Anyway, my wife’s parents immigrated to the US from India. My father-in-law’s surname was fairly long (say, something like Rajakrishnan). Not long after my wife was born, my father in law and mother in law legally changed their surname to a shortened version (say, Krishnan). However, they never legally changed my wife’s name. My wife went through her life thinking her surname was Krishnan. Enrolled in school with that name, got it on her Social Security card, got it on her driver’s license, made it all through med school and residency with the name Krishnan.
Then we went to file for a marriage license. We lived in Missouri at the time and filed in Wisconsin, where we planned to get married. Her dad met us at the courthouse with her birth certificate. With the surname Rajakrishnan. This threw the bureaucrats for a loop and we couldn’t get the marriage license filed, since the birth certificate didn’t jibe with any of her other ID or paperwork. We were in Wisconsin for one day and had to get the paperwork done that day. Somehow we managed to get in front of a judge and legally change her name to Krishnan, get a piece of paper for the name change, then go file that, then file the marriage license.
I changed my first and middle names. My previous first name was a pleasant name with which I have little argument, yet it wasn’t, existentially, mine. After using my middle name for a number of years, I legally changed to it, and a new middle name, before I graduated college so my diploma would have my use name on it.
I changed my name when I was married. I took my husband’s last name, but I also swapped my first name (which I never used) with my middle name (which is what everyone calls me and has always called me.) He changed his name to take my last name as a second middle name and he also changed his first name to what has been his nick-name.
I have friends who, when they got married, made up a name out of their two last names and both took it.
I know two other women who changed their first name, one to what had been her middle name, and the other to a name she liked more than her given name.
That’s all I can think of right now.