Legally changing your name was actually more of an ordeal than I would have thought. Don't get me wrong – the legal process is actually pretty straightforward, although there is a bit of bureaucracy involved. Still, in some ways it is difficult to change your name. I decided on a name change for different reasons than most people have. According to the clerk at the court I went to, if you aren't changing your name after getting married or divorced, you are somewhat of an anomaly. Most people who go for a legal name change and don't fit in one of these categories are either fleeing from the law or radically changing their identity. Most of the latter are transgendered people, and most of the former get caught. Still, there are other reasons to change your name.
Until I did it myself, I had always wondered why you would ever want to change your name. After all, you can always just have people call you something different. Most of my friends would never go through a change your name procedure. They are either too poor, too thrifty, or too disdainful of the law. Most of them have one name that they use with their family, and another name that everyone else calls them. You don't have to change your name – you just get a new one whenever you want.
I never would have legally changed my name except for a profound event that happened to me one day. As I said before, you change your name in my community whenever you want – but you never ask Uncle Sam for permission. I have never fully participated in that community, although I consider most of these guys friends. You see, I have a more conservative upbringing than most of my friends do, and I was never completely comfortable with the change your name routine, the bohemian lifestyle, or the loose and wild living.
One day, however, I woke up and realized that I had everything that I wanted. Despite the fact that I was broke, I had caring friends, a vibrant artistic community, and a loving girlfriend who I would probably stay with for the rest of my life. That very day, I got a change your name form and decided to go with the one that my friends have been calling me lately – Syd. I wasn't particularly crazy about the name, but I knew that it represented a break from the world of my parents, the world I grew up in.
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