Change Your Name?

This topic was created in the Miscellaneous forum by MissPirate on Thursday, June 3, 2010 and has 24 replies.

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@MissPirate
17 Years1,000+ Posts
I was watching a topical chat show on TV yesterday and one of the questions posed was "would you ditch an embarrassing surname?" just because people laugh whenever you introduce yourself as Mr. Ticklecock or Penny Smellie?

One of the callers on the show was a Mrs Goodhead lol, which didn't sound that bad to me. Another woman though was a Mrs Hooker, who did change her name because she was a teacher and said she didn't want the children all saying their teacher was a hooker.

Whether you have an embarrassing surname or not my question is would you (or have you already) changed your name? How bad would it need to be before you'd consider it? Not asking anyone to divulge their surname's btw!



Profile picture of venusianbull
@venusianbull
16 Years25,000+ PostsTaurus
My surname is rather boring and quite English ( I am not, septic here ). My first name, however is very unique. I didn't care for it as a girl because of all the teasing and so on. But now I love it. If my name is called, one head turns round, mine. 🙂
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@MissPirate
17 Years1,000+ Posts
Haha! That is class. Dude has a sense of humour that's for sure.

Most people though, I would imagine anyway, in their daily lives wouldn't always see the funny side. I mean especially at school, kids are so mean.

What if your surname was..........Dumfart.

That's gotta hurt!
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@MissPirate
17 Years1,000+ Posts
I suppose it all depends on the individual and the actual surname and how strongly you feel about it.

I mean the Goodhead one I just find funny but that's because I'm older now and so I could probably laugh it off. Imagine being a young teenage girl though being teased by boys about it.

The discussion on the show (which is in the UK) was all about the embarrassment versus keeping hundreds, possibly thousands of years of family history.
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@venusianbull
16 Years25,000+ PostsTaurus
I think the worst one, hands down. And yes I laughed till I cried. Local politician, and his signs were "Vote for Harry Balls". No joke. What on earth were his parents thinking? "Harold would be SUCH a nice name, seeing as how our last name is BALLS and all." 😛
Profile picture of MissPirate
@MissPirate
17 Years1,000+ Posts
Posted by brianafay
I used to work for a swimming pool builder...and one of their clients was named Michael Hunt. Mike Hunt for short. 😛

Whenever LL would joke around about Mike Hunt on here I'd secretly giggle.



I had to say Mike Hunt out loud several times before I got it lol.
Profile picture of MissPirate
@MissPirate
17 Years1,000+ Posts
At high school my biology teacher was called Miss Ritchie. Nothing wrong with that, except that some of the guys used to call her Matitsa lol.

See that's the thing I suppose, kids will take the piss out of anything!
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@trifles light as air*
16 Years1,000+ Posts
i've always had a rather funny-sounding last name, to most americans anyway. basically because it's not an english (or english-sounding) surname. when i was younger, i hated it. but i don't mind it now. i kind of like having a unique name (for here, anyway).

the length is more of a problem than the way it sounds these days. it takes me like 5 mins to sign my full name. lol. so that's the one reason i wouldn't mind changing it.
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@Qbone
21 Years10,000+ PostsVirgo
It is probably ugly to say that but what the hell.. there is name as Rasoul (Muslim name and means messenger like prophet or something) and there is a word in Norwegian as (rassh??l) means (asshole)..

Poor guys with the name of Rasoul in Norway.. If they wanted to live in Norway they should definitely change their name??_
Profile picture of MissPirate
@MissPirate
17 Years1,000+ Posts
My aunt changed her name officially. She went from Carol to Roxanne, for reasons unbeknownst to me (although my dad thinks she became involved with some weird cult) but I still call her "aunt Carol" which she hates. That may well be the reason I still call her it actually. 😛