[kreg]

On the internet and just anywhere I often use a name that is slightly different from my birth legal name. Part of the reason is that I feel I'm not quite the same person as I was in younger days. Occasionally someone will question with a note of disapproval. I say if they don't like it or don't understand I don't care. I think it's perfectly okay to get a new name. I guess people think they or their personality is cast in stone -which is far from the understanding of modern psychology and really primitive thinking.

[seesaw]

I understand what you mean. I am going through a legal name change myself for about a year now. People seem to want an explanation for why I'm changing my last name. I don't think it's any of their business. Mine doesn't so much have to do with changing my personality as eschewing something old that I want to leave behind. I have considered changing my name entirely, but I'm used to my first name and, I think, it would break my mother's heart, so I don't.

[Loose Screw x 2]

I've been thinking some of changing my name some day too. I created a character not too long ago and if I ever manage to become anything like he is then, I will definitely assume that identity and leave my past behind.

I go by a variation of my name. Most people who knew me as a kid or professionally know me by my actual name. Doesn't bother me.

[divine1966]

I like my first name. It’s common yet uncommon, hard to explain.

My last name absolutely doesn’t go with my first though. My first suits me entirely but my last one is the most common family name you can think of. It’s not ugly just doesn’t suit me. I took my second husband’s name because I felt like it but I miss my previous last name, which was a great match for me, but it was my first husband’s, so I felt I’d have to part with it. I had it for 30 years but it was time. That’s ok.

The only people who really use my last name are my students. And two years after I got this name some of them still use my old last name, which they say suits me better lol (and they are right), oh well

[notz]

I also go by a variation of my first name and I can identify with it being "common but uncommon" like Divine! When people call me by my birth certificate name though, I know they don't really know me. I always have to spell my last name even though it's somewhat common in other parts of the US. Oh, and the mispronunciation of my last name can be hysterical! Wish i could share more!