On changing one's name

[dutchy kilted]

Sounds like a great idea for all the right reasons. Was it Shakespeare who said, "to thine own self be true"?

[NewGuise]

Was it Shakespeare who said, "to thine own self be true"?

It was ... although for better or worse he put those words (along with the equally well-known "Neither a borrower nor a lender be") into the mouth of a pompous and relatively foolish character: Polonius, in Hamlet.

[Kilted Jeeper]

I changed my last name at the age of 18 to that of my step-father. Today, almost 20 years later I am close with both my father and my step-father. There is no issues as my father understands my reasons.

Go for it!

[Tobus]

Cool. I didn't know that either! All these years I've been opening up Microsoft Word, inserting the character from the character map, then copying/pasting it. Now if I can just memorize all the non-English character Alt codes for the ones I use, I'll be all set.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your input. I'm moving ahead with this, albeit slowly. I've got a lot of prep work to do on finding out just how much it will cost me, what time frames I need to work within for notifying certain agencies as soon as the change is effective, and the like.

Two things I strongly dislike about this process, though:

1. Apparently in my state of Texas, the county judge is given the authority to deny my petition for a name change for pretty much whatever reason he wants. He gets to weigh my petition against the "best interest of the public", as if it is their name, not mine.

2. I must submit fingerprints to the state in order to do this. As if changing my name automatically means I'm a criminal, or that somehow they suspect me of one day being a criminal. Granted, they already have my fingerprints from my CHL application on file. But still... it's the principle of the thing. My wife is not happy about having to be fingerprinted, but she will submit to it if it means that much to me (bless her heart!).

In other words, both my objections to the process are over the state's attitude that only suspicious people would dare to change their name, and that it should only be done if it benefits the "public" and not the individual.

I expect it to be a few months before the ball really gets rolling on this, but hopefully I can make the process as painless as possible with enough planning.

[Jack Daw]

Do, it, Tobus. Males changing their last name is probably more common than you think. A lot of actors adopt their stage names as the real thing.

[bchunter]

I like the style of your intentions and applaude your actions.