Published on 12, July, 2020
I've been thinking about doing this since I was small. I absolutely hate my given name - it's long, too many syllables and I've always struggled to pronounce or even hear my own name. I shortened it to something more easy to say aloud, but still I cringe. My name also was said alot in vain growing up as I was misunderstood and wasn't diagnosed until very late in life - so it's traumatic to hear it and I always feel like I'm in trouble when the full version is spoken.
I thought up a better name but am having cold feet due to thinking I'm just being silly. I feel like I don't know what my identity is and my name is just associated with negativity I think. Users here may have spotted that I change my profile username alot because I just can't settle on 'me' either anonymously or IRL.
I'm really interested to hear others' views on their own names, do you like your given name? And do you struggle with what your name means to you? ie. your identity. Hope I'm making sense!
My name was also taken in vain by an abusive peice of crap, so I just changed it by deedpoll and have never looked back, there was another reason too but this one is the more key point relevant to your issue I think.Getting other people to get on board can take time though, especially if they are in the habit of calling you the defunct name and it can feel really disrespectful, but eventually they get the hang of it if they respect you at all to stick with it.It is really liberating though, like taking another step into being your own person, it was a vital part of my trauma recovery imo.
I'm sorry to hear about that abusive ****. Yes I wondered how easy or how long it might take for people to call me the new name and I totally get that it is an important part of trauma healing for me. thankyou