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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Aedilred
I also think, as an aristocratic Scottish name with a fancy spelling/pronunciation, it fails the "pretentiousness" test. It's fine to be born with it but I wouldn't recommend picking such a name for oneself.
Trade Fleetwood Mac jokes for Braveheart jokes?
I would be minded to pick a surname that reflects the culture BP is currently living in (or planning to live in). Taking on a German (or French) surname when he doesn't live in a German- or French- speaking area and doesn't have any immediate cultural ties to seems strange. Even if he picks a name based on a German/French origin I'd say to take an Anglicised version of it (assuming he plans to remain in the US, that is).
A German or French (or Italian or Spanish) last name would work fine (especially for a white-ish guy) in today's America, but if not paired with actual ancestry roots, it's stupid IMO.
You wouldn't want your DeWhatever grandkids exploring their genealogy in school thinking they might have distant Greater Louisiana roots only to find that their grandpa just pulled the name out of a hat.
My honest answer: can't you find an actual family name (distant cousin, distant uncle) in your family tree to adopt?
First name, you want something English and ancient, go with classic -- Alfred, Edmund, Arthur, etc.
(Make sure you're okay with the nickname form "Al" or "Ed".)
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BannedInSchool
Biggus Diccus?
Well, the first name would ideally be taken from British history, right? And King got suggested at least a couple times as family name... so, a more palatable suggestion but still a variant of yours would be Richard "****" King.
Edit: huh, turns out the forum software censores the common hypocorism for Richard. Who'd have thunk.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Biggus Diccus indeed. :smallbiggrin: "Do you find that wisible?"
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bulldog Psion
Admit it, good sir, you're just a fan of Robert E. Lee, aren't you? :smallsmile:
Or Christopher Lee, or Bruce Lee, or Stan Lee.
Anyway I’ve hit upon a great idea.
Just use your screen name.
First name: Bulldog
Last name: Psion
Or you could steal a name from a DnD character.
[edit]
if we're going to make jokes about the male member how about just going with Richard Johnson
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Bulldog Psion. Well, that would certainly be ... different. :smallbiggrin:
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bulldog Psion
Bulldog Psion. Well, that would certainly be ... different. :smallbiggrin:
Write it in Sindarin or Lojban. :smallwink:
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
I believe that what goes with Everard is two short strong syllables. "Du Mont", as mentioned above, fits the bill nicely. Also consider perusing this list.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
If I ever need to change my name, I will do everything in my power to change it to that.
I am sure that people at the witness protection programme will be enthusiast :smallbiggrin:
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BannedInSchool
Write it in Sindarin or Lojban. :smallwink:
A quick internet search gets me "Mundhu Nauthmaethor" for Sindarin ("Bull-dog Thought-warrior"). Or I suppose you could go for "Mundhu Curunauth," "Bulldog Skill-thought." :smallbiggrin:
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
razorback
A bit of tangent advise - When we went to name my son, the wife and I put lists of names together for boys and girls as we decided to keep in interesting and not know the gender.
Now, my (our) last name is Italian and sounds like a pasta so I was very cognizant of the teasing that went along with that. I shot down a lot of names on the wife's list with 'Kids are going to tease him if we name him Fred as 'Freddy Spaghetti'" as an example. Just might want to keep that in mind if you plan on having kids in the future.
That being said, Everard just looks hard to pronounce and people will probably get it wrong a lot on the first try. Trust me from someone who gets their last name butchered on a weekly basis.
That being said, what do you want out of the name?
Common or uncommon? Something that is going to stand out or be barely a blip on the radar? Something, when heard, is going to get someone to think what you want them to think?
Personally, I've always liked the sound of 'Magnusson' as a last name, with the Magnus root.
When naming my kids, I had a couple rules:
1) Easy to spell and pronounce. Since my family was going to be pronouncing it too, I needed to make sure they could pronounce it. My father can't pronounce "th" sounds well, so Matthew's out.
2) Common enough that it raises no eyebrows, uncommon enough that there won't be a tremendous amount of overlap. As someone who had one of the most common boy's names, I know how annoying it is to share a name with a lot of people. If there's a lot of overlap, people come up with all kinds of nicknames that don't go by your preference. I knew 4 Jennifers, all Asian, in High School. We eventually shortened their names to Jen, Jeni, Jenni, and Jennifer. The one I knew as "Jen" actually prefers Jenny, so she was mislabeled her entire high school tenure. There's two "Aidans" in my daughter's class and she knows them as "Big Aidan" and "Little Aidan", again, not ideal.
3) Cadence: I have a single syllable last name, so the first name had to have multiple syllables.
Then I had fun. My wife and I came up with a list of names and then had my family and friends vote on them, NCAA bracket style. Reading the comments was hilarious. One name my wife liked a lot, "Tristan", was described by my cousin as "California awful". She also had "Ingrid" destroyed in the poll, which made her sad.
For "Edmund", I like it a lot. The only thing is that it's very uncommon in the U.S. I found boys' names tended to have less variety than girls'. We found a great name for my daughter that's in the 200s in name popularity, but my son is around the 40s mark. "Edmund" isn't even in the top 1000 most popular boys' name recently and its use spiked sometime in the early 1900's, so it definitely has an old fashioned tinge to it.
The two people I most associate with the name are Sir Edmund Hillary and Edmund from the Chronicles of Narnia. In addition, Edmund Halley is also a famous holder of the name. They're all British, so adding again to the old fashioned nature of the name.
It however does fulfill all 3 of the criteria I had set out for my kids, so I approve. I hope you're happy with it, if you decide to go with it.
P.S. For last name, I agree with everybody else. Find something personal to tie it to yourself. Pick either an old relative name, location, or profession, something part of your identity.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bulldog Psion
A quick internet search gets me "Mundhu Nauthmaethor" for Sindarin ("Bull-dog Thought-warrior").
Oh, so another girl's name. NM.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
I'm assuming you've discarded the idea of simply getting a nickname like "Ace" or "Bulldog" & forget having to go through the legal change effort.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Scarlet Knight
I'm assuming you've discarded the idea of simply getting a nickname like "Ace" or "Bulldog" & forget having to go through the legal change effort.
If you don't mind me asking, why are you campaigning so hard for him to NOT change his name? Your case earlier wasn't a very good one, because he clearly stated he wasn't running from his attachment to his family, but his very name itself due to it's female connotations, and it seemed like that was the end of it, but now your back and still trying to convince him to not do it. Why? What's wrong with a person changing a name they absolutely can't stand? I can see(albeit barely) your case of not changing it if it's because of hatred towards your immediate family, changing your name really wouldn't change much there, but in Bulldogs case, that clearly doesn't hold up.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Eh, i don't see the harm in a nickname (most of my IRL friends refer to me exclusively as Peelee, for instance), except for a couple things.
1 ) you don't give yourself a nickname. That's just uncouth. It needs to be more organic.
B.) "Ace" is one of the worst nicknames ever.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
I've skimmed through the four pages and I'm not sure if anyone with actual legal name changing experience has yet chimed in...
My sister has a weird first name that she's hated ever since she was a kid. For many years, she was looking forward to legally changing it. In her early 20s, she invested the time and money into the effort -- she gathered the necessary sum and made an official request.
She had to explain in the request that her given first name had been an unnecessary burden for her, and that she was fed up with having to go through life with every single new contact having to have her name spelled out, new contacts usually butchering it on their first tries, etc. and that her life would be so much nicer if she had a more "normal" name.
Her selected choice for a new first name was a very common girl name and it even happened to share the last half with her current weird first name, she figured that would make the request easier to get accepted -- that's why she chose that one. She wasn't picky anyway -- any common name would've been fine.
The Registry of Civil Affairs' reply came a month or two later: "Request denied: the prejudice caused to you by your current first name does not seem severe enough to us to justify a legal name change". Their answer was pretty elaborate and showed some analysis of my sis' arguments that were explaining that her first name was a burden.
Now, this was a request to change a weird first name for a common first name that shared nearly half of its letters with the former.
I can only imagine the kind of resounding "No way!" answer that she'd have gotten if my sis had tried to change BOTH her first and last name -- seems to me changing the last name is even more serious business -- and had suggested something that sounded like a D&D character name as her new complete name.
P.S. The money paid in fees by my sis for the legal name change request was, needless to say, not refunded.
Edit: Note that this wasn't in Wisconsin, maybe you're just lucky and WI happens to treat legal name change very lightly. Have you already discussed with the state department that handles legal name changes? How likely is it to end up working...? You might also have to settle for a less ambitious request than changing both names.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
I'm secretly tempted (even though I won't) to take the name "Leomund," which actually makes sense in Old English (lion+protection). :smallwink: And to put one of those carved wooden signs outside my house: "Yes, this really is the tiny hut." As a sort of geek Easter egg. :smallbiggrin:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Scarlet Knight
I'm assuming you've discarded the idea of simply getting a nickname like "Ace" or "Bulldog" & forget having to go through the legal change effort.
Good sir, while I appreciate your concern, I no more want the name "Rhiannon" attached to me than I want to be named "Hitler Tedbundy Smith." :smalleek: While it's nowhere near as ghastly as that, actually it's still a 100% female name attached to someone who doesn't feel feminine. And it's the name and theme of a, in my opinion, saccharine-sounding pop song that 50%-75% of people who encounter it instantly associate, correctly, with that song.
Only lack of opportunity (long story) has prevented me from changing it sooner. Now that I can, I can't see any reason not to get rid of it.
Edit:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lio45
Edit: Note that this wasn't in Wisconsin, maybe you're just lucky and WI happens to treat legal name change very lightly. Have you already discussed with the state department that handles legal name changes? How likely is it to end up working...? You might also have to settle for a less ambitious request than changing both names.
I could always do it stepwise; the Rhiannon is the main thing I want to remove like a giant hairy wart anyway.
You fill out a petition and a couple of other forms, and hand them in (with a fee) to the Clerk of Courts. Then you publish a notice once a week for three weeks in a local newspaper. At the end of that time, the newspaper sends you an Affidavit of Publication. Then you take that, go to your name change hearing, hand that over, provide a reason for the change, and either get it changed or not.
If I pick a reasonable first name, I can't imagine it being refused, considering my current name is demonstrably the wrong gender and is, as noted, the name of a pop song to boot.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Can you really change your name in whatever you like in the USA?
It's really harder in France. You need to have very good reasons for a change and there are some important limitations (I believe you can either change a few letters or take the name of your mother or grandmothers, that kind of things).
It's too bad you don't like Ryan. It's not a bad name and it would be easier for your friends, workmates, family and stuff. One of the reasons I don't change my last name, besides how hard it is here, is that I feel like people would find that odd.
Now about your last name, you seem not to like it because it's your parent's one. Well.. It's also your grandfather one, don't you like him either? Sounds like a bad reason to me :/
Edit: Should have readed lio45 before posting, it might answer a lot.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
My uncle changed his last name, but in no small part that was due to having spent nearly the entirety of his life believing that his was the surname of the man who raised him. Blended families have been pretty normal for over a century in my hometown, so it's not like he didn't know he had half brothers or that his dad wasn't his biological father.
Literally every document and signature except the birth certificate which indicated different. I think he may have been operating under the assumption that he'd been legally adopted and that included the name change. I don't know if that's what it takes, but that's the one case of name change I know of personally that wasn't due to the person getting married.
In any case, good luck.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lio45
something that sounded like a D&D character name as her new complete name.
Finzoball Fanzipan would be a difficult name to approve, then. Although I could always recycle it if I have two dogs or cats.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
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Originally Posted by
Quild
Now about your last name, you seem not to like it because it's your parent's one. Well.. It's also your grandfather one, don't you like him either? Sounds like a bad reason to me :/
Well, I'm still up in the air on the last name. I might leave it, due to not wanting to risk NOT changing that abomination of a first name, which I think is probably a LOT easier to justify.
My grandfather has a totally different last name, though. My current last name comes from my grandmother. However, my grandfather's name is really weird, plus it's attached to a well-known funeral parlor now. So I don't really want to have his, either, even though I know nothing about the guy beyond his being a short-order cook who served as a machinist's mate on the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga in the WW2 Pacific Theater.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lio45
[lengthy bit about hassles with government in name changes]
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Quild
Can you really change your name in whatever you like in the USA?
What the hell. I realize that the U.S. culturally places significantly more value on individual rights over government than a lot of places, but the government saying "you can't change your name to this, we find it unacceptable" sounds crazy. You should revolt. Want help revolting? I've never revolted, but it sounds fun. We should revolt. When's good for you?
Also, "revolt" no longer sounds like a real word to me.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Peelee
What the hell. I realize that the U.S. culturally places significantly more value on individual rights over government than a lot of places, but the government saying "you can't change your name to this, we find it unacceptable" sounds crazy. You should revolt. Want help revolting? I've never revolted, but it sounds fun. We should revolt. When's good for you?
Also, "revolt" no longer sounds like a real word to me.
Well, judging by Wisconsin, I doubt they'll give me much hassle. I mean, you can renew your driver's license by mail here; if you do so after it expires, they charge you $5 and still let you renew it by mail.
Having dealt with US officialdom and Kazakhstan officialdom, the American officials are so laid-back and relaxed about stuff by comparison that it's a tremendous relief. :smallbiggrin: Not trying to start a political discussion here, just stating a fact I observed by dealing with the two sets of people in close time proximity when working on my wife's immigration to the U.S..
Hence my confidence at being able to change my name, actually. (My wife, who is from Kazakhstan, was amazed at the fact it can be done. In her country, you can take your father's or mother's name instead, depending on gender, and that's it -- plus you have to pay a lot of fees and even bigger "fees" to do so.)
------
Anyway, people must have overlooked my "Leomund" and "tiny hut" post. :smallwink: I can't imagine this board missing the opportunity to take a few good-natured jabs at me over that. :smallbiggrin:
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
I know if I ever changed my name, I'd change it to Maxwell Power, and then after introducing myself I'd ask people to call me Max.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
On the subject of the legal aspect of names, specifically in Norway:
There are a few rules you have to abide by here, for naming and changing names. First of all, there are a few names which are 'copyrighted' so to speak - you cannot call your child or change your name to Bjørnstjerne (one of our major authors) for instance, or Henrik Ibsen. Nor can you call a child something which will be a burden on them. This last bit is to avoid being saddled with something from dickish parents: Anus, Busemand, and Musa are all real attempts - anus, bogeyman and the ***** (or 'the mouse', but we all know what they meant), and certain other names are illegal like Quisling and Hitler. There is also a similar law to prevent unfortunate incidents of foreign names that are homonymous with something degrading or rude in Norwegian. Fitta, for instance, means 'the ****' in Norwegian. There's even a paragraph about not calling your kids animal names, which some people believe makes many ancient and established names illegal (like Bjørn, Ulf, Ylva, Varg, etc.); it doesn't but it is a hrd rumor to squash. You can't have your name forcibly changed if you were named abroad and move to Norway, AFAIK. In practice, they are quite permissive because they realize that being too restrictive does no one any good.
For changing names you have to wait a certain amount of time from first application to confirmation that you still want to change. I am told this is to prevent too many cases of people getting drunk or enamored with a weird name wanting to change back after coming to their senses. If you wish to take a new last name that has 200 or fewer living holders in Norway you have to get permission from each one of them.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Peelee
What the hell. I realize that the U.S. culturally places significantly more value on individual rights over government than a lot of places, but the government saying "you can't change your name to this, we find it unacceptable" sounds crazy.
There are various laws around the world about what you can name your baby in the first place. Some are basically "not anything stupid", but others are a list of approved names you must pick from.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
togapika
I now if I ever changed my name, I'd change it to Maxwell Power, and then after introducing myself I'd ask people to call me Max.
Related to the Australian race car driver Will Power, perchance? :smallwink:
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
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Originally Posted by
BannedInSchool
Related to the Australian race car driver Will Power, perchance? :smallwink:
It's a Simpsons reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfy9Wzj1ROA
I'm always taken by surprise by restrictive laws about what you can change your name to. But yeah, it's a good idea to check what the actual regulations are surrounding it and whether you have to make an "application" which can be refused, or whether you can just send in a notice basically saying "yo, this is my name now" (as in the UK).
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Aedilred
I'm always taken by surprise by restrictive laws about what you can change your name to. But yeah, it's a good idea to check what the actual regulations are surrounding it and whether you have to make an "application" which can be refused, or whether you can just send in a notice basically saying "yo, this is my name now" (as in the UK).
New plan: Change name to "His Royal Highness," move to UK, wait a few years, and get them crown jewels.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
YES! "Hello, Mr. Capulet, my name is Romeo Lee. Of the Boston Lees. I'm marrying your daughter k bye!" Done! Call it a day, be happy, hope it wasnt a mistake because thats REALLY rushing into things.
The killings were what would have unravelled things, admittedly.
As memory serves, Capulet noticed that Romeo was crashing his party and pretty much said "for a spawn of Montague, that Romeo guy is pretty fly. Don't throw him out on his ear, we can maybe use him as an excuse to end the feud." I also maintain that if the idiot teenagers had taken their illicit love before their parents that less death would have resulted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Quild
My first name (Quentin) comes from Quintus, but I don't have in mind other names coming from other numbers.
So I guess the names of the princes in Stardust don't come from nothing.
I love my first name but unfortunately, Quentin isn't a very well known first name. I was often told from English people that they never heard that name. Until I mention Mr. Tarantino.
The worst of it is that I have a very common last name, which is also a very common first name in many countries. So people tend to switch my names. Like a lot. Really. The very people I'm working with since years still struggles with that. I hate them. Stupid last name.
I know several Quentin parents. One of them has been nick-named "Atilla" by my wife.
In middle school there was a kid named "Lucas George." Subs got his name backwards all the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Joran
Common enough that it raises no eyebrows, uncommon enough that there won't be a tremendous amount of overlap. As someone who had one of the most common boy's names, I know how annoying it is to share a name with a lot of people. If there's a lot of overlap, people come up with all kinds of nicknames that don't go by your preference. I knew 4 Jennifers, all Asian, in High School. We eventually shortened their names to Jen, Jeni, Jenni, and Jennifer. The one I knew as "Jen" actually prefers Jenny, so she was mislabeled her entire high school tenure. There's two "Aidans" in my daughter's class and she knows them as "Big Aidan" and "Little Aidan", again, not ideal.
"Nae-as-big-as-medium-sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-Jock". Crivens! Your daughter obviously goes to school with Feegles.
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bulldog Psion
I could always do it stepwise; the Rhiannon is the main thing I want to remove like a giant hairy wart anyway.
You fill out a petition and a couple of other forms, and hand them in (with a fee) to the Clerk of Courts. Then you publish a notice once a week for three weeks in a local newspaper. At the end of that time, the newspaper sends you an Affidavit of Publication. Then you take that, go to your name change hearing, hand that over, provide a reason for the change, and either get it changed or not.
If I pick a reasonable first name, I can't imagine it being refused, considering my current name is demonstrably the wrong gender and is, as noted, the name of a pop song to boot.
Yeah, I think it's wiser to try it in steps; first name first...
You know, very worst case, you could simply become "Ryan" without a need for a legal name change...
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Re: In quest of a last name for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lio45
You know, very worst case, you could simply become "Ryan" without a need for a legal name change...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bulldog Psion
I shorten it to "Rhian," which I pronounce like Ryan in a feeble attempt to conceal its provenance, but I hate that name too. I also hate Ryan by association.
I'd wager that's not an option.