Is it Todd? I can understand not wanting to be called Todd.
Hey! That’s an awesome name!
But if I decided to change it, I would change it to Jack. Definitely not George.
It would certainly be simpler and cheaper to go with a nickname of some kind, either your initials, a derivative of your name, or an unrelated nickname. My father had a pretty staid first name, (Think “Elmer Johnson Jr.”) and went by a nickname his entire life - “Junior” as a boy, but by the time he was an adult he had a cooler nickname (think “Rusty”) as well as work derived nicknames (think “Skip”). When we quizzed him about how he got his most common nickname, the story was always different. That said, every story changed its ending if he thought you’d heard it before.
I have another friend who goes by “Spike”. He’s 6’, but kind of bear like (yes, in exactly that way) and not at all a tough guy, so it really fits him, once you know him.
I on the other hand, have never had a nickname that stuck for more than a year or so - I assume because I’m OK with my real name (think “Winston” :D)
Thanks for the responses so far. I would love to have been named Todd or Peyton…or really any of those guesses except for Egbert.
I can’t go by my middle name, because it’s not even a name. My initials are likewise not “namey” initals like JJ or JD, and is a rather unfortunate combination of letters. That’s okay if you’re writing a letter or something, but I think it would be awkward meeting someone and saying, “Hi, my name is NQ.” (Not my initials, but equally as ugly).
Nobody has correctly guessed my name; it’s unusual enough that you could probably identify me based on information in my posts, so I’d rather not post it publicly, but if you’re really dying to know, just PM me and I’ll tell you.
This is precisely the kind of reaction I’m worried about.
I recently had my son’s last name legally changed to match my own (his mother is almost entirely out of the picture). It was fairly painless and the biggest “issue” was just making sure I could prove to the judge that I had given his mother adequate notice to contest the change if she wanted.
Other than that, it was filing at the county courthouse, four weeks of publishing a legal notice in the local paper and then a court date for the judge to bless it. The judge just makes sure that you haven’t committed a sex crime, aren’t intending fraud, etc. She okay’s it, you hand the paperwork to the clerk and it’s all done except for requesting new licenses, certificates, cards and all that.
It was around $400 all told – $300 for the court filing and another $70-odd for the paper.
My mother legally changed her name to “Pat”. Her parents had planned to name her Pat but at the last minute, my grandfather decided he wanted his girl to be named for his wife and his mother. But she was always called Pat anyway, just to tell her apart from her mom at home. She eventually hated being called her mother’s name. However, rather than offend her mother, she waited until Grandma passed away before legally changing her own name.
She has not had any problems with the change. However, my brother came up against an issue with a government form that wanted his mother’s maiden name, which turned out to be the name she was baptized, not the new first and middle name she bears.
I changed both my first and middle names in 2003. Did a TON of research to decide what to change it to, then a TON of research to find out what the requirements were for the legal change. Waited the requisite 6 months residency period, went to my local courthouse, asked for the paperwork for a name change.
They handed me a single piece of paper that amounted to “I was known as ____, and now want to be known as _____. I’m not changing my name to avoid prosecution for some heinous crime.”
I gave them the piece of paper and $25, the clerk disappeared into the judge’s office for a moment, and came back with a notarized copy of my name change. I walked out of the courthouse 20 minutes after walking in a totally different person. :eek:
Drivers licenses come out of that same office in the courthouse, so that wasn’t a problem. Got a new SS card within a week or so. My friends made the change without a problem; coworkers had a little trouble but caught up. I didn’t tell my family for a couple years, because I knew it would upset my mom. The only one in my family who’s made the shift is my oldest sister; everyone else calls me by my birth name.
I will say this- people definitely respond differently to the new name than the old one- I’m taken a lot more seriously, even though my old name wasn’t ‘girly’ or particularly unprofessional. Most people are shocked to find out that I changed my name, and ‘can’t imagine’ me as a “BirthName.”
Is your new name “Bob”?
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As I pointed out in the other thread, common-law changes are fine for most purposes, but the US Passport Authority will not change your name on your passport without the official (expensive) court document.
This could cause problems if your passport is in one name, and your drivers license/other ID in another (especially post-9/11, blah etc.).
Or, you know, never leave the country. 
Anyway, court costs and procedures vary from state to state, but from what I’ve read the bulk of the cost comes from the legal requirement to run an ad in a local paper for a number of weeks declaring that you’re going to change your name. (Because, you know, people totally read those “legal declaration” ads in the back of the classifieds. Sigh.)
Ooh - BM would suck to have as initials. Sorry about that. 
See, I don’t think initials necessarily have to be “namey” as long it’s not something that could be taken inappropriately, like BJ or BO or IP Freely or something. And even BJ is common enough. If it’s just something that sounds a little cumbersome, like NQ, I’d go with it.
I hated both my first and middle names, so I changed them as a 35th birthday present to myself.
I downloaded and filled out a common law declaration and submitted it to the county recorder’s office, took an official copy to the Social Security office with the document and requested a new card with the new name/same number then took another official copy and the social security paperwork to motor vehicles for a new license. All told, it took about $70 IIRC and three hours.
Now, one complication I didn’t expect and nobody warned me about came the next year when I applied for my first passport. Even though every other gov’t agency is cool with it, the passport office only automatically accepts common law name changes if you’re a woman who changes her last name for purposes of entering or exiting a marriage. They only automatically OK name changes made through a court, which is much more time consuming and expensive.
My application was initially denied because I hadn’t had my new name in place for at least five years. I had to get two people who had known me for at least two years swear an affidavit that they believed I wasn’t up to anything and provide all manner of supporting documents, such as bills with the old and new name but the same account, etc. and submit them for review and appeal.
That took several weeks and when my passport finally arrived it had my old name inside the front and my new name as a note on the last page that said, "Bearer is also known as New First New Middle Same Last Name.
That one still gives me about 2 seconds of trouble when I travel internationally. The ticket agent and TSA thug all get a look of either confusion or, “Oh boy! His boarding pass doesn’t match his name. I found it. I get a cookie.” It’s fun to watch them deflate when I say, “Look at the back page.”
I had a boss whose initials were B.M., and was eager to exchange her last initial upon marriage. She then married a man whose last name began with S.
Did you get a new birth certificate?
Yep, I’m transsexual, so of course the name I was given was male and not appropriate for a female gender identity ^_~
I also changed my last name because of disagreement with my dad, and also a strong desire to get rid of my old, clumsy, long, extremely Italian last name that rhymes with “weenie”.
I changed my original first name legally on the same day I got married. I actually got married under my original name (so my dad got to give away his daughter with her original name) then changed my first name right afterwards when we filled out the other paperwork.
It’s fine. Family mostly operates on nicknames anyway, but I’m happy with them calling me by my old name if they like, unless they’re calling for me at work in which case I get very irritated if they ask for me by my old name, because it causes questions with my co-workers. Husband uses my new name although he swapped in and out on the names for a few years, of course.
All in all, changing my name was a completely painless process and I’m very glad I did it. I never felt like my old name fitted me properly (it was actually quite pretty, just totally not right for me) but I feel completely at ease with the current one. For the first couple of years after changing it, I’d still prick up my ears if I heard someone use my old name (like people calling out to their kids in a store or whatever) but now I tune it out entirely.
No. I don’t think that’s an option.
Now that I recall, I did have to take my original birth certificate with me to Social Security and send it in along with all the other crap for my passport appeal. They returned it all when they sent the passport.
I had a friend in college, named Chris, that decided to legally change his name to Eric after school. It worked for his new friends and colleagues that didn’t know him previously. All of his old friends continued to call him by his original name…as that’s how we know him.
He complained and said that his name was now Eric. We said well if that’s the case, his nickname was now Chris. And everyone knows, you don’t get to pick your nickname, your friends do. So he goes by Eric with his new crowd, and by Chris with his old crowd. I think his family still calls him Chris as well, except for one sister.
My name used to be David Dörrksuecker. I hated it, so I changed it to Phil.