In common-law countries, you could also change your name just by using the new name. You could stand in the town square and announce, "I'm Max Power now, every

In common-law countries, you could also change your name just by using the new name. You could stand in the town square and announce, "I'm Max Power now, everybody. Stop calling me Doug Putz. New name: Max Power." And that would be it. Or you go up on stage and say "I'm not just 'Gordon' any more. Call me 'Sting'." And everybody rolls with it, because no one cares about a bass player named Gordon, but a guy named Sting has to be cool. And then he actually has two completely separate names, that both refer to the same person. In modern times, governments make you fill out a form and pay a fee, because now people need to know people that don't all live inside an hour-long trip radius by horse. And publishing a name change to hundreds of millions of people that may want to know about it cannot be done by soapbox and megaphone. And those forms cause all kinds of problems. All the information on it has to fit inside the boxes, you see.