I used to have a customer named Jeffrey Epstein… I understand not changing it, but oof…
I guess it depends how common your last name is where you live. If you’re a Smith/Johnson/Brown/Williams in the USA, those are pretty common. If you’ve got one of those names in China, maybe a name change is in order.
If your last name is Summerbell, that’s a bit rare, and maybe you need to distance yourself.
It depends on one’s name, because said name happened to make people infer one’s ethnicity. It’s more of an ethnicity thing if you think about it. For Khazars (I’m a crypto Khazar, so I’m convinced), we change our name to hide the fact we’re Khazars, because we’re wannabe Caucus Eurpoeans, but we come from Turkey originally (and eastern Europe as the Khazars).
Don’t take this out of context but… I see nothing wrong with Dahmer.
No, this has happened and I did not feel the need to change my name. Nobody even associates my name with his because his heinous crime happens so often in my country.
I will rejoice in being a famous Floopenhoffer!
Harvey Epstein is crazy bad luck for a name.
For me, it depends on the crime and how common or uncommon the name is but still probably not.
The only issue with sharing a name with a famous criminal is on a job application. And if HR can’t tell the difference between someone serving a very long sentence in prison and me, I wouldn’t want to work for them anyway.
There are tv plot points about employers doing a background check, finding the wrong details, so not hiring someone. In real life I hope they would take a few steps to confirm
SIN are used for background checks in my country. As for looking up social media history, I haven’t had a social in my name for many years.
My last name is limited to my 5 closest relatives. This is due to a bizarre misspelling 3 generations back followed by mostly female descendants.
Have you searched for the name outside your family line? I know you said misspelling but my last name is rare because it was made up by immigration on Ellis Island: they couldn’t understand my ancestor so decided “close enough”. Same thing as a rare misspelling.
Before the internet, we knew of one unrelated person with the same last name but only because he was he was geographically close enough to be in a neighboring phone book. When someone took my Gmail (identical first initial, last name) it was a relative. Now with the internet and person search we’ve found a handful, but only a handful
Yes.
It was changed when my 7-year-old great grandfather was sent to school with the dozens of other immigrants from the tenement building. He spoke his name, the German school administrator wrote what he heard, and that was it.
There are 2 other super-similar names that I assume are related, but without DNA, I can’t prove it. I am the family genealogist, so I’m never done researching.
Whoa super cool! I would ask you to say what it is but do not expect you to answer :)
Yeah. I’d like to be able to, but this isn’t the kind of society where my opinions should be matched to my body.
I can tell you that the original was Sicilian.
Except for the exact spelling I already share a last name with a war criminal president. But since I’m in a different country and the name has a positive association with an author here, it hasn’t really seemed like an issue.
Guess it would depend, but I’m leaning toward no, because it’s one thing my father gave me that I will always have, and he passed away over 20 years ago. I’m a Stephen King Constant Reader like my father before me, and Sai King says “do not forget the face of your father.”
I live in an area where I’m the only one related to me for hundreds of miles, with the exception of my wife, who took my name when I married her. But there are other people using my last name. No relation. Way I see it, if the wrong people come looking for me, they’ll find them first, and they don’t know me. Maybe one of them has my first name as well. Maybe that person will be my designated decoy. I’m not on social media, so my face isn’t widely known. Some bad dudes come looking for me, these other people will probably catch their attention before I will. I say let 'em have it.
Changing your name is an insane amount of work and it is not worth it
I would argue about insane amount, but would agree that it is not worth it.
If you’re just changing your name without getting married there’s a lot of paperwork, you have to stand in front of a judge, then you have to change all your banking information and everything else that had your previous name on it. And so help you god if you lose that paperwork that says you changed your name if you happen to need it years later it’s a huge issue. It’s a lot of work to change your name.
I did change my surname late in high school. Maybe it is cause of my country, bur yhat was not so easy. I just wrote a letter to the birth certificate register with a good reason to do so. Once they replied with “you’re good to go” I just wen to the passport issuer with that mail and changed my name. What happens next is the problem - change name in all instances - school, work, license, bank and so on.
When I was younger and less involved in this world, it was quick. Today, with all the subscriptions, payments and registrations - screw that. Too much effort.
So, just change it if and when I get married?
Apparently when getting married it isn’t quite as easy as I was thinking. But depending on your country it might be slightly easier
Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks.
I would try like getting royalty checks just by name alone. Try to pretend I’m related to them, forge some documents and stuff. That is if the person is interviewed or having books or stuff made of them.
Jokes on me there are close to a hundred million people with the same last name as me, I’m not changing
My whole name - first, middle, and last - is one of those that’s so generic I’m damn near impossible to Google without already knowing other key identifying details. Details that, if you already knew, you probably wouldn’t need to Google me anyway.
Welcome to Port Royal, Mr. Smith.
