Change your name change your life
And no I don't mean on CS although some of us did and there was a real difference
How much does your name influence your life? When someone gives you a nickname, is it an annoyance or a relief? Lovers give each other pet names - a subconscious desire to change their loved one into a person who belongs only to them.
Slightly worrying when the new lover is called by the pet name given to the ex, mind. "Darling" is one thing, "Squooglemix" may be another.
If your name is, for example, Benjamin, you may introduce yourself as Benjamin, or Ben, or Benny, or Benjy, whichever is your 'happy' name.
When others add their own variations, especially when they've just met you, how irritating is that? It's like they don't even know you and already they're trying to change you. I don't even answer to the name Liz, not because I dislike the name, I simply assume the person is talking to someone else. It is absolutely not me.
I'd love to know if anyone has completely changed their name, even if only for a specific group of people, and noticed a real difference. Believers in numerology insist that changing your name - changing one letter can make the difference - can change your life. I have now been known in real life as Biff for over a year - I like it, and I have certainly changed in some ways, so it made me curious.
Comments (152)
They either feminise it (Jackie), or come up with names like Sam, or Jo because they remember it's blokey, but can't remember which one, or I get demands to explain myself.
It's such a simple wee name, is Jac.
Because I have a long name, I tend to think I'm in trouble when someone uses it in full
Have you always used the Jac version or was it a nickname that slowly became your preferred name?
I had a brother in law that had always went by a nickname, I don't think anyone new his real name. Now that I think about this, a name could really mess a person up.
@ Jac, I like your surname
You didn't answer the implicit blog question - are you known by your birth name, or a variation of it, and have you ever noticed a difference when people use a different name for you? Answer that, THEN you get a biscuit
I did see something about Buzz Aldrin being known as Buzz as a child because his baby sister couldn't say his name, and he eventually changed his name by deed poll to Buzz because everyone knew him as that (was he Eugene, or something similar?)
Wish Bear was still around, she could throw more light on something I once heard, that Native Americans changed their names as life offered new ones, so the name you were born with was just a handle until you found the name that was right, and even that could change. I rather like that.
Talking of nick names, I was quizzing my dad on our family tree and he couldn't remember his eldest sister's real name. I was going to have much luck entering 'Sis' in a search engine.
Dashing off to class, later gators
I answer to all names with 'a' in the middle, including several times in the supermarket when children have called out "Dad!"
Their little perplexed faces are an absolute delight.
Just different versions/takes on the proper name
The woman wearing the same coat as my mum also had a delightfully surprised look on her face when she realised I'd attached myself to her.
Should I really be posting I'll answer to anything and walk off with anyone, on a dating website?
Guess what?!?
Art hasn’t got a middle name too!!
And nobody realised that, not even his mom, until he was ready to go to Vietnam when he was 17!
He now jokes when people asked, “Hey, how come you don’t have a middle name?”
Art’s reply....”Coz we were very poor and my parents couldn’t afford it”
The name ‘Molly’ will forever have a special place in Art’s heart.....
MiMi is my childhood nickname and my official name is too ‘complicated’ for gwailo or white devil like Art
Once I get to the States, think I’ll just introduce myself as MiMi O’Brien.
I go by few other names too and I respond to all of them. Maybe I’ll get my Arty to call me different names on different days.....just to ‘create’ the feeling as though he has a mini harem, eh??
Gotta go! Gotta start work now.......Skypeing with Art who just got up
I remember having to fill out some forms once and it asked me to put his middle letter in and he had none, I had a time trying to explain this. What a hassle.
Thanks for the info, Bogart!
There isn't a Saint Jac...yet.
I still go as Mrs. So and so. I don't know if it's right to use the name of a late husband. It serves a purpose. I don't like to use my Chinese name here as I can't be bothered to explain my genealogy to every curious soul. And Mrs. ..... keeps me grounded.
When I am out of here, I go as Chinese.