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Naming things is hard. Naming people is harder. Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. My paren

Naming things is hard. Naming people is harder. Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. My parents love my name. I hate it. There are too many of us for names to be a unique identifier. First names are too generic to say anything about us, and they're usually assigned at birth, before any of our traits are known. Family names are even worse; here's your father's last name glued on to yours, for no apparent reason. Or maybe your mother's. Or, if you want, in Belgium, a hyphenated version of both parents', but excluding any hyphenated part of theirs. This somehow implies that family is important, but only a small part of your family? I don't get that in a modern context. Iain M Banks had an interesting take on multi-part names in The Culture, with the naming scheme at least featuring a chosen name. But sadly also including things you have no control over, like place of birth and parentage. Letting everyone pick their own name would be nice. That's apparently already possible in some parts of the world, but not everywhere. And often you can only change it if your name is truly ridiculous or if you share a name with a serial killer or some such.

Freak_NL 7y ago
It depends on the jurisdiction. In the Netherlands changing your given name(s) is possible if you can convince a judge of its negative impact on you. Gender transitioning is an obvious rationale, but a well-worded explanation of why your current name doesn't match who you are or damages you (e.g., past traumatic experiences, abuse, but also a name simply not suiting you) tends to suffice. It's not something you can get done at a whim or frequently of course. The judge will weigh the needs of society (i.e., to be able to consistently refer to citizens by a constant name in various types of records) against your personal motivation for changing names.
- ummwhat 7y ago
  The US is much more liberal about this. You have to pay a fee and put in some paperwork and make an announcement in a news paper with a certain amount of readers and a judge will deny requests that violate a very limited set of common sense criteria. Sometimes the judges can get a bit lazy about actually filtering requests. Jesus Christ literally lives in New York.
  - Freak_NL 7y ago
    Why would a judge in a nation that separates state and religion care about someone calling himself Jesus Christ? Jesus is a common given name, and Christ a common enough surname. (Or Kris Kringle for that matter.)
    - ummwhat 7y ago
      It's not about "calling himself" Jesus Christ so much as convincing others that he is literally Jesus Christ. Basically it's a form of fraud (or maybe insanity, who knows) One of the common sense criteria is you're not allowed to assume the identity of well known public figures or entities.
  - notahacker 7y ago
    In the UK it's even more liberal - you need a piece of paper and some witnesses' signatures. I knew Mr 118 Taxi back when he thought a name change might help promote his business...
    - denton-scratch 7y ago
      You don't even need that. You can just start using a new name - perfectly legal in the UK.[1] You need to execute a 'deed poll' if you want the new name recorded on official documents, or accepted by organisations like banks. [1] www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll
  - amyjess 7y ago
    > and make an announcement in a news paper with a certain amount of readers And even that depends on what state you're in. For example, Texas doesn't require it (source: I legally changed my name in Texas in 2014). And some states that do require it can waive the requirement if you can demonstrate that you have legitimate privacy concerns and the judge is sympathetic; e.g. if you're changing your name to hide from an abusive family member or if you're transgender. On the other hand, many states require a clean record in order to change your name. Using Texas as an example again, I had to do a fingerprint background check before they would even schedule my court date. My record was clean, but if I had a criminal record, I would've only been allowed to change my name under limited circumstances.
Nursie 7y ago
---redacted as there is much better information in the response below--- It forever complicates your life as many official correspondences will ask if you've ever been known by a different name, and require you to provide documentation that the change was official and what your previous name was. It's only a small hassle, and not many people do it as a percentage, but the option is there.
- DanBC 7y ago
  Sorry, but you've mangled the methods a bit. > All of them are a little weird but one is free - you can effectively write to one of the courts in London to say you have been known by a different name for some time, so would like your official records updated to that new name - but this route is unconventional and somewhat archaic. This is an enrolled deed-poll. It's not free, it costs £36. It's not unconventional. It's a commonly used method because it's the change that is most widely accepted by other organisations. > The more often used method (deed poll) costs £35 and takes a couple of weeks Deed-polls are free. You can write your own, or you can download a template from the Internet. We don't have legal names in England. You can change your own name at any time, for any reason, so long as you don't have the intent to defraud. You can change it to almost anything you like. There are three methods: If you're over 18 you can just stop using your old name and start using your new name. This is just as valid as any other name change method. It doesn't work well because banks and doctors tend to ignore it. The next step up is to use a deed poll. This is free. It's just a piece of paper saying that you've stopped using your old name and you're only going to be using your new name from now on. A deed poll is just a written version of the first step. For some reason having it in writing helps people accept it more. But some banks don't accept this form of deed poll. The next step up is an enrolled deed poll. You take your deed poll and you enroll it at the Royal Courts of Justice and have it published in The Gazette. It costs £36. This form should be accepted by everyone. Because it's cheap, and because it's accepted by banks, and because it makes life easier, this is the version that most people chose. https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll
  - Nursie 7y ago
    Quite right, I had that confused. Interesting to read that there is no legal need to enrol, and that statutory declarations or just affidavits can be used instead. But the enrolled deed-poll is the one that's going to make your life easiest AFAICT.
Fnoord 7y ago
> Naming things is hard. Naming people is harder. Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. My parents love my name. I hate it. Did your parents not give you multiple names? My parents gave me multiple names, and I've done the same with my child. We gave our child a relatively short, practical name, with the other 2 names being longer and more "luxury". Same as I have. I also grew up with a mother who used her second name. The main annoyance I have is that my first name is common (therefore chance there's another person with same name around), and native variation in my country yet not easily pronounceable in English. I just use a different variation or shorten it. As for the last name, I find the old Nordic way interesting. Iceland apparently still uses it, see [1] for details. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name
- Tharkun 7y ago
  > Did your parents not give you multiple names? Multiple names are pretty uncommon here, except for multi-word names like Jean-Luc etc. There's an old custom of naming your child $first $godfather->first $godmother->first $last, but that's slowly dying out. It's why many Belgian males havie Marie as a third name.
JetSetWilly 7y ago
> Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. Too right. When we had to name a child, I took all the CSV files of every child names in Scotland for last 15 years (Scottish Government provides all the raw statistics for every name) and loaded the data set into elasticsearch where I was then able to construct visualisations and trends of candidate names and get ideas etc. It is quite a burden to think of a name for a child.
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  That… is certainly an interesting approach. Did you look for particular characteristics? My wife and I had a son this year, and took care to give him a name that would work well in any situation. He has two given names (we do too), so he has a backup name in case the first one doesn't suit him later on (my wife uses her second name, because her parents figured it suited her better after a year). We didn't use any technology beyond the publicly availalbe Dutch database for given names in use, but we did look for a pair of names that would look good on a resume as well as work well in daily conversation. They are old names that should hold up well regardless of what is en vogue at the moment. I hope he likes them.
  - kaybe 7y ago
    Here's an interesting visualisation for names and ages: https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html
  - JetSetWilly 7y ago
    Mainly was interesting to consider if a candidate name was popular in the past and not now, or in steep decline or steep ascent. Old fashioned names are fine but I didn't want to choose a name that had just been popular 10 years ago and curse child with a faintly aunty-ish name for rest of her life, and didn't want to choose a name that might be about to become hugely popular either. At the same time didn't want a "unique flower" kind of name. A name with 10-50 children being named that each year and not wildly ascending or descending was in the sweet spot.

Freak_NL 7y ago

It depends on the jurisdiction. In the Netherlands changing your given name(s) is possible if you can convince a judge of its negative impact on you. Gender transitioning is an obvious rationale, but a well-worded explanation of why your current name doesn't match who you are or damages you (e.g., past traumatic experiences, abuse, but also a name simply not suiting you) tends to suffice. It's not something you can get done at a whim or frequently of course. The judge will weigh the needs of society (i.e., to be able to consistently refer to citizens by a constant name in various types of records) against your personal motivation for changing names.

ummwhat 7y ago
The US is much more liberal about this. You have to pay a fee and put in some paperwork and make an announcement in a news paper with a certain amount of readers and a judge will deny requests that violate a very limited set of common sense criteria. Sometimes the judges can get a bit lazy about actually filtering requests. Jesus Christ literally lives in New York.
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  Why would a judge in a nation that separates state and religion care about someone calling himself Jesus Christ? Jesus is a common given name, and Christ a common enough surname. (Or Kris Kringle for that matter.)
  - ummwhat 7y ago
    It's not about "calling himself" Jesus Christ so much as convincing others that he is literally Jesus Christ. Basically it's a form of fraud (or maybe insanity, who knows) One of the common sense criteria is you're not allowed to assume the identity of well known public figures or entities.
- notahacker 7y ago
  In the UK it's even more liberal - you need a piece of paper and some witnesses' signatures. I knew Mr 118 Taxi back when he thought a name change might help promote his business...
  - denton-scratch 7y ago
    You don't even need that. You can just start using a new name - perfectly legal in the UK.[1] You need to execute a 'deed poll' if you want the new name recorded on official documents, or accepted by organisations like banks. [1] www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll
- amyjess 7y ago
  > and make an announcement in a news paper with a certain amount of readers And even that depends on what state you're in. For example, Texas doesn't require it (source: I legally changed my name in Texas in 2014). And some states that do require it can waive the requirement if you can demonstrate that you have legitimate privacy concerns and the judge is sympathetic; e.g. if you're changing your name to hide from an abusive family member or if you're transgender. On the other hand, many states require a clean record in order to change your name. Using Texas as an example again, I had to do a fingerprint background check before they would even schedule my court date. My record was clean, but if I had a criminal record, I would've only been allowed to change my name under limited circumstances.

Nursie 7y ago

---redacted as there is much better information in the response below--- It forever complicates your life as many official correspondences will ask if you've ever been known by a different name, and require you to provide documentation that the change was official and what your previous name was. It's only a small hassle, and not many people do it as a percentage, but the option is there.

DanBC 7y ago
Sorry, but you've mangled the methods a bit. > All of them are a little weird but one is free - you can effectively write to one of the courts in London to say you have been known by a different name for some time, so would like your official records updated to that new name - but this route is unconventional and somewhat archaic. This is an enrolled deed-poll. It's not free, it costs £36. It's not unconventional. It's a commonly used method because it's the change that is most widely accepted by other organisations. > The more often used method (deed poll) costs £35 and takes a couple of weeks Deed-polls are free. You can write your own, or you can download a template from the Internet. We don't have legal names in England. You can change your own name at any time, for any reason, so long as you don't have the intent to defraud. You can change it to almost anything you like. There are three methods: If you're over 18 you can just stop using your old name and start using your new name. This is just as valid as any other name change method. It doesn't work well because banks and doctors tend to ignore it. The next step up is to use a deed poll. This is free. It's just a piece of paper saying that you've stopped using your old name and you're only going to be using your new name from now on. A deed poll is just a written version of the first step. For some reason having it in writing helps people accept it more. But some banks don't accept this form of deed poll. The next step up is an enrolled deed poll. You take your deed poll and you enroll it at the Royal Courts of Justice and have it published in The Gazette. It costs £36. This form should be accepted by everyone. Because it's cheap, and because it's accepted by banks, and because it makes life easier, this is the version that most people chose. https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll
- Nursie 7y ago
  Quite right, I had that confused. Interesting to read that there is no legal need to enrol, and that statutory declarations or just affidavits can be used instead. But the enrolled deed-poll is the one that's going to make your life easiest AFAICT.

Fnoord 7y ago

> Naming things is hard. Naming people is harder. Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. My parents love my name. I hate it. Did your parents not give you multiple names? My parents gave me multiple names, and I've done the same with my child. We gave our child a relatively short, practical name, with the other 2 names being longer and more "luxury". Same as I have. I also grew up with a mother who used her second name. The main annoyance I have is that my first name is common (therefore chance there's another person with same name around), and native variation in my country yet not easily pronounceable in English. I just use a different variation or shorten it. As for the last name, I find the old Nordic way interesting. Iceland apparently still uses it, see [1] for details. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name

Tharkun 7y ago
> Did your parents not give you multiple names? Multiple names are pretty uncommon here, except for multi-word names like Jean-Luc etc. There's an old custom of naming your child $first $godfather->first $godmother->first $last, but that's slowly dying out. It's why many Belgian males havie Marie as a third name.

JetSetWilly 7y ago

> Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. Too right. When we had to name a child, I took all the CSV files of every child names in Scotland for last 15 years (Scottish Government provides all the raw statistics for every name) and loaded the data set into elasticsearch where I was then able to construct visualisations and trends of candidate names and get ideas etc. It is quite a burden to think of a name for a child.

Freak_NL 7y ago
That… is certainly an interesting approach. Did you look for particular characteristics? My wife and I had a son this year, and took care to give him a name that would work well in any situation. He has two given names (we do too), so he has a backup name in case the first one doesn't suit him later on (my wife uses her second name, because her parents figured it suited her better after a year). We didn't use any technology beyond the publicly availalbe Dutch database for given names in use, but we did look for a pair of names that would look good on a resume as well as work well in daily conversation. They are old names that should hold up well regardless of what is en vogue at the moment. I hope he likes them.
- kaybe 7y ago
  Here's an interesting visualisation for names and ages: https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html
- JetSetWilly 7y ago
  Mainly was interesting to consider if a candidate name was popular in the past and not now, or in steep decline or steep ascent. Old fashioned names are fine but I didn't want to choose a name that had just been popular 10 years ago and curse child with a faintly aunty-ish name for rest of her life, and didn't want to choose a name that might be about to become hugely popular either. At the same time didn't want a "unique flower" kind of name. A name with 10-50 children being named that each year and not wildly ascending or descending was in the sweet spot.