Poll Have You Changed Your Name?

[shimmerz]

Have you changed your name? Not necessarily legally, but informally counts too. If so, any idea why? Do you recognize that it was in reaction to something?

 

[Friday]

I've done it several times. Nom de guerre, nom de plume, nicknames, my callsign, rearranging the order so that people I don't like aren't using my first name as if they rate that privilege, marriage, divorce, and most recently I'm in process of changing my name and social security number due to an ongoing stalking issue.

<edited for brevity :) victory>

 

[BlueOrange]

There is the name on my birth certificate, and the name my family and friends always called me (a shorter version, commonly associated with the long version).

I used to put the long version on official forms, and on all formal correspondence. These days, I put the short version on pretty much everything. I remember making a conscious decision to stop trying to separate 'formal me' from 'real me'.

So, I guess once?

 

[illusionist]

I've changed mine a few times, both informally and legally...never really thought why, before, at least with the informal names. My birth name was never used, in fact, I'm unsure of the proper spelling. ..so I think from the start I've never really felt any true identity with a name....it's just like a number, for others to identify me with.

On the other hand, when I have changed my name, it's been when I've moved on...maybe by changing name, I was trying to change myself...a new life?

 

[Deleted member 20280]

I have shortened my full first name from Laurence to Laurie because the name I was born with it too much of a reminder of the abuses I suffered as it was pivotal in many of them.

Only problem for me is that my chosen name is recognised mainly as a *girls name* lol

 

[garden]

I had changed my last name when I was really young as an attempt to create my own identity. I was estranged from my family (disowned) and I had always felt like I didn't belong to my family anyways, so I did it. My stepfather and biological father both have the same last name (no relation), and I didn't want to have anything to do with either of them. It was liberating back then. Now I have my husbands last name, and I feel connected to that name more than I ever did to my birth name.

 

[sun seeker]

I said three times, then wasn't sure what counted... but yes, I think three.

 

[Nam]

Just because? Once. I shortened my first name because it sounded better with my new married last name. Like @BlueOrange , I tried to be official with my documents, but just recently (in the last month), I changed my website and various other things to my shortened name. So now everything is this shortened name. It is me.

I was given a name in Korea that means something about the moon. I can't remember what. My adoptive parents changed it. (Thank GOD, because my Korean name all slurred together sounds like 'condom you'.) And then when I got married to my awesome hubby. I really have a complicated maiden name so I was glad for the easier last name.

I have not changed it here in all the years I've been here. I do think that some people might associate my name as a Vietnam vet, which I didn't even think about. It's my Korean name..a part of it.

 

[moonbeam]

I shortened my first name as a teenager. Then I joined a cult and went by a different "name" and eventually shortened that name. And then I made it my surname.

2 years ago I made the full change of both names legal so I could stop being called the wrong name on official stuff.

I actually got a job once (it was a 6 month temp contract through an agency) because while they liked my CV they really wanted to meet me because of my name. Was all pretty awesome actually.

 

[holdenmonty]

Kind of sorta but not really... I know it's really confusing. I remember after I enlisted and got to my first duty station the nickname of Monty came to be and I liked it because you couldn't pull jokes or stupid things to say from Monty but for the name Holden there is all kinds of things just take the en off and you have the punch line of all kinds of jokes about me and my name growing up. So I kind of grew a dislike for my first name and a like for my nickname especially since when my dad was in the navy his nickname was Monty as well. So I went by Monty and really liked it and most people didn't even know what my first name was. Until after I got back from my deployment and things happened and I kind of grew to an indifference I guess you could say to Monty. Then I got to my current base and there are a lot of officers and they tend to use the first name of those lower ranking then them or their peers and I started to like my first name and now I have gotten to the point that I don't mind if somebody uses my first name or calls me Monty. I like both.

 

[Deleted member 29889]

What a great poll!
I have plans to change my name officially. I've got my new name picked out. My birth certificate names were foisted upon me by people I hate. I even got the privilege of being the namesake of the one who was perhaps the most sadistic abuser of all. I just dread the hassles of changing names on every bit of documentation, (bank acct, soc. sec., etc.) and having to explain to people with whom I do business that I'm changing my name.

 

[Hatshepsut]

I want to legally change my name! I would do it as a symbolic fresh start in life...letting go of the old me and my painful past and starting with a fresh slate. Someday I really would like to do this.