Have you ever thought of picking a new name? Surprisingly, many people don’t like their names, first or last. Honestly, if my name were Anthony Weiner, I would change my last name before I ran for office.
My own name, Norbert Haupt, is spelled out in the URL of this blog. When I type it into Google, I am more than 20 of the first 30 hits, and definitely the first few.
While my name is extremely common in Germany, in America, I have to spell both my first and last names to people when I tell them, especially to phone operators. So I have sometimes thought of changing my name.
When I go to Starbucks and the barista wants to know what name to write onto my cup for my order, or if I wait in a restaurant, I never give them Norbert. I give them my choice candidate new name.
How many people have an alternate choice name?
Mine is Joe Howard.
If somebody forced me to change my name right now, it would be Joe Howard. Just as I am writing this, it occurs to me that I have never googled Joe.
Here is a delightful blog post by a woman, actually a same-sex couple, about choosing new last name for their fledgling family.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Joe+Howard&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS518US518&oq=Joe+Howard&aqs=chrome.0.69i57j0l3j69i62.3334j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Well, I started to change my name once. It was Helm. I had gotten divorced and planned to change it back to my maiden name. Then I unexpectedly found myself running for office, and “Put Mary at the Helm” was just too good a slogan to give up.
That is too cool. Yes, that’s a reason to keep a name one would otherwise drop.