• Replies 7 replies
  • Subscribers 84 subscribers
  • Views 666 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

I hate my given name

Deleted User

I have always hated my given name, it sounds awful, I hate how it sounds and for me will always be tied to a lifetime of failure and giving up, and I cannot change it.  Deed polls and revising paperwork and records, informing people seem like more trouble than it's worth.  

  • Not post-hunting, just something  that's been on my mind for a long time. If you introduce yourself with any name you choose, nobody would care. Being an immigrant, I sometimes don't go through the trouble of introducing myself with my real name - and people just go along with whatever - it's strangely liberating. Those who know me were also very accommodating. 

    Chinese do it all the time - it's customary to choose an English-sounding name, and no one makes a big deal of the fact that Jack is in fact Yuing or anything. 

  • in reply to Deleted User

    My eldest has changed their first name - but not legally. So I think asa compromise this works relatively well - as not that many things are ‘official’ enough where you’d need to change it legally. Maybe you could try that? I’ve also considered changing my name but like you didn’t want the hassle of some aspects of doing that. It is odd that this really important thing - our name - is chosen by someone else! My eldest is very happy to have made the change - even though they’ve not done it legally (yet!). 

  • in reply to Deleted User

    I'm not a massive fan of my name either, but I can't think of anything I'd rather be called.

    You've got a choice of either canging it by the two methods others have suggested, or sticking with the one you were given by your parents.

  • This isn’t legal advice as I haven’t reliable knowledge about these things. I suggest you get professional legal advice from a solicitor. 

    Years ago, a friend of mine (in the UK) changed her name without using a deed poll. She got two statements from witnesses confirming that she had changed her name from say Sarah Black to Anne Brown on 15th October 2005. She then sent her old passport to the passport office, along with the witness statements, and requested a new passport in her new name. She received the passport and used it as ID to change her bank account details and driving licence. Twenty years later she is still called by her new name. 

    Isn’t there something about calling yourself whatever you like, so long as you don’t intend to use the name change to defraud?

    I have noticed that actors and pop stars seem to change their names.

  • in reply to Kate Kestrel

    As stated above, the legal complications would not make that easy.

  • create a nickname, your "known as" then none of the hassles (not sure how easy or much it is?)  - I still have people use mine from decades ago