# I wonder why more people don't change their names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 26, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402 "2003-06-26T00:02:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/41 "2003-06-26T17:50:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Optihut \* > \*\*I wouldn’t feel comfortable changing the name after being more than a year years old. After all, there’s just too much name specific stuff in my resume alone and it would be a female dog to change the name in all those documents as well. \*\* Well you actually can’t change your name on a lot of that stuff. We just did a refinance on our home this week. Because the wife still had her birth name when we bought it is on the title. She had to sign a form that said she was \ PKA \ allong with all of the other stuff. PKA = previously known as BTW: it’s been a few years but the cost for her was only $50. Although she did have to pay to publish the new name in in the paper in case anyone wanted to contest it. ---
**Author:** ![dcordell1960](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@dcordell1960](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dcordell1960)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/42 "2003-06-26T18:37:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mercury \* > \*\*For the rest of us, you need to hire a lawyer, file court papers, place a newspaper ad, etc. Spend a lot of money and jump through a lot of hoops. > \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eats\_Crayons \* > \*\*“Hire a lawyer?”… Geez, here all you have to do is show up with about $180, fill out a form, and they do it while you wait. \*\* Before I got married, I had my name changed. It was as easy as **Eats\_Crayons** says. I took my payment, filled out a form, went to a judges chamber where they asked a few questions and it was done. My fiance and I both disliked my last name and her last name, so we looked for another one. We finally found one and it fits me much better. When we got divorced she said “_I have as much right to this name as you do_”, so she kept it, until she got married again. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/43 "2003-06-26T19:07:24Z")
I share my first name with my mom, so they always used my middle name. This worked great until I became an adult. Everybody I do business with knows me by my first name because of credit cards, SSN, insurance etc… But everybody else, except for close relatives think my middle name is my first name, so it gets confusing. I thought about dropping the first name completely, but didn’t want to hurt my mom. Now that she’s gone, it seems like a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/44 "2003-06-26T19:25:32Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Ri-chan \* > [BIf I got the chance, I would almost definitely change my name. First, middle and last. My first/middle names are extremely common (Stephanie Marie), and I’m really tired of jumping when I hear my name then hearing the other girls last name. The worse was in grade eight, when there was a total of four in one of my classes…_\* My sister had a similar problem in one of her Gr. 12 classes… I think it was her chemistry class. There were three people (including her) called Steph… they all turned around every time the teacher or the other students called “Hey, Steph…” Actually, there’s another girl in my church Fellowship who’s only a few years older than me. For years, I’ve had the problem of “Oh, not you… I meant the other one.” (plus the misspelling problem, since our names are similar when written out) We’ve gotten used to it, but STILL… > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by dantheman \* > [BI actually knew someone who had no idea what a \_ was. Looked all over his keyboard and could not find it._\* I used to know a few people like that… “What’s an underscore? I can’t find it on my keyboard… are you sure it exists?” _sigh_… YES, I am PERFECTLY sure it exists, thank you very much! Take a look on your keyboard beside the “zero” key… it should be there. To produce an underscore, just press the SHIFT key and that one in concert (at the same time, or the underscore key slightly after the SHIFT key)… it really isn’t that hard, y’see? Sorry… just had to get that pent-up emotion out somewhere. 🙂 > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\*I didn’t particularly like my name as a kid and asked people to call me something else on a regular basis. One of my first memories, I must have been three or so, involves striking up a conversation with an elderly couple in a department store and telling them my name was “Laura” – which is similar enough to my actual name that my mom just thought they’d mis-heard. She caught on soon enough. I can still hear her saying, “Well, when you’re TWENTY-ONE you can go to COURT and CHANGE your NAME.” > > So now I’m twenty-seven, and I still haven’t changed it, nor do I intend to. Just gotten used to it, I guess. \*\* That reminds me of the time when I wanted to change my name because there was someone at my school with the exact same name as me… only he was a guy! :eek: My parents pointed out that when I was EIGHTEEN, I could change it if I so wished… but that I’d have to pay the $150 or so it entailed. Can’t remember if I wanted to change my name before that, but I don’t think I’ll change it now… unless I get married or something. (whether THAT will happen is something else entirely) F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/45 "2003-06-26T20:59:30Z")
Sorry, Optihut. #3 is correct. Sometimes I ain’t too good at puttin’ together them there sentences. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/46 "2003-06-26T22:13:10Z")
I actually looked into this years ago. See, I hated my first name, especially the nickname that everyone called me by (because if you use the full version of my name in this country, you’re a “snob”). By the time I was out of school, I was using my initials instead of my name. But then I started getting mail addressed to “MR.”, which I really didn’t like, either. So when I met my husband (second, actually), he gave me a nickname that I actually liked, and that is based on my real middle name (I didn’t want to be called by my middle name “as is”, as it doesn’t sound feminine to me). So anyway, I researched how to change my name. One thing I found out is that you **don’t** have to go to court to change your name, if you just want to change it for common usage and you aren’t using the name with intent to defraud. So I didn’t go to court. I just started using the new name, opening a credit union account and getting a few credit cards with it with no problem. Now, some banks and other institutions will not allow you to use anything other than your legal name as it appears on your driver’s license or other legal identification, so this may not work in every instance. But I have no problem making the link between the name I commonly use and my legal name, so I don’t have to change my legal name. If you wanted to use something completely different and wanted to have it be your legal name, you would of course have to go to court and all that. BTW, my parents seemed a little put out at first that I stopped going by the name they gave me, and they wouldn’t use my “new” name. But it’s been over 10 years now, and they don’t seem to have a problem with it any more. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/47 "2003-06-26T22:28:24Z")
I absolutely cannot STAND my first name. (It ain’t Audrey, either.) My name is synonymous with a famous TV show from the 70’s…and people have rarely met anyone with my name, so when they meet me, they feel the need to make a Big Huge Joke out of it. (Everyone’s heard the name, but very few people know anybody with the name. They just can’t resist their one opportunity to make the same ol’ joke out of it.) This is so widespread a response that when people ask me what my name is at work (I bartend) I tell them my name and follow it with, “And if _anyone_ says anything about it, they’re gonna get cut off.” It rarely works, though. _sigh_ And it makes me look like a poor sport if I don’t take The Same Old Jokes with good grace. (Even _friends_ who introduce me get tired of hearing the jokes; that’s how widespread the problem is.) But nobody takes me seriously when I say how much I really do hate my name…they don’t think it’s that big a deal…but I’m the only one who has to _live_ with this name so who the hell are they to think it’s no big deal? _bitter_ I’m getting married next year; there’s no additional fee for changing your first _and_ last name, so I’ve thought about it, but I know it would be a Big Huge Deal with my family if I changed it, and I don’t know how I’d convince friends and family to use whatever new name I gave myself. (My parents would take it as a personal insult. Their POV is that they didn’t _name_ me for this particular TV show–it was coincidence–so they don’t get it.) Does anybody have any experience with that? Do people respect your new name or do they keep calling you by your former name? I’ve thought about going by my middle name, thereby avoiding any “legal change,” but my middle name’s Marie, which is pretty much EVERY GIRL’S middle name…it’s not a particularly cool name either, if I’m gonna go to that much trouble… _sigh_ I don’t know. If anyone has any advice or experience, I’d love to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/48 "2003-06-27T06:23:00Z")
I know women sometimes change their name or assume a name because of stalkers. I doubt that’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/49 "2003-06-27T07:44:49Z")
**Audrey** , you’re not by chance uncompromising, enterprising, anything but tranquillizing, are you? (Please don’t hit me.) My name irritates me because both my first and last names are relatively rare. Furthermore, my first name is a fairly common last name, and my last name, in a variant form, is a fairly common first name. Usually when I fill out a form with last-name-first, it gets “corrected” for me, and other frequent mishaps. Grrr. Further, my first and last names together are not particularly euphonious. They form two trochees and it sounds rather herky-jerky to me. I love my three-initial monogram, though. It’s the perfect businesslike monogram, nicely balanced, non-word-forming. I’d never change my name. It’s me, and furthermore, my father would be utterly crushed. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/50 "2003-06-27T15:25:18Z")
Women artists keep their maiden name alot. I wondered about that… My real name is Persian (No, Im not called’ Persian’). Persia is now Iran, so my first name is Iranian. Maybe if we have a war with them I change it. ---
**Author:** ![Optihut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/edb3f5/32.png) [@Optihut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Optihut)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402/51 "2003-06-27T16:00:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Sorry, Optihut. #3 is correct. Sometimes I ain’t too good at puttin’ together them there sentences. Ah, I think it was rather a difficulty on my side - nobody else had a problem understanding what you meant. And I chose the right meaning as well, so it’s all good 🙂 I was just intrigued by the sentence, that’s all 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-wonder-why-more-people-dont-change-their-names/184402.md?page=2)