Have you ever thought about changing your name?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I wrote a post entitled What’s in a name? The name’s Liddell, Stephen Liddell. It’s hard to believe that’s over a decade ago!

One thing that perhaps isn’t clear is that my name isn’t Stephen. Actually Stephen is my middle name but my first name is Robert. I’ve never liked my first name being Robert and remembering arguing as much to my father and grandmother when I was a child.

It was a family tradition, quite a popular one in the U.K. to keep giving the first born son the first name, rather like in the USA you get people who might be George Washington III or whatever except in the U.K. with its longer and often surprisingly easy line of ancestry if it were me I would be Robert XX or C which seems a bit stupid to me.

In fact the whole thing seems a bit stupid to me. I’ve only ever used the name Robert once for a temp job when I was about 24 just to see if people treated me differently as a Robert rather than a Stephen. Rather weirdly they did and confirmed in my mind that a Robert is one sort of person and a Stephen is another.

Having so few names, it seems such a waste to have a first name that is absolutely not used in anyway except to be printed on bank forms and council tax statements and doubly so if you don’t like it.

If you’re going to have a name you should at least like it shouldn’t you? My maternal Grandmother was called Sheila and she always hated her name. I’m not sure why, it’s a perfectly nice enough name but she always wanted to be called Sylvia. Perhaps because she was a wonderful singer, often she would be singing in her home and she sounded like an opera singer. So much so that people would often assume that BBC Radio 3 was playing, the BBC channel for classical music and opera. But why couldn’t an Opera singer be called Shiela rather than Sylvia?

We would always say to just change her name if she wants to but sadly she never did.

It occurred to me that I can change my name at any time. In the U.K. it is a very quick and easy process that costs just £42.44. It made me think why more people don’t change their name to pick one that they like or reflects them as people?

So I’ve been thinking of changing my name. I’d still keep Stephen as I know my mother picked the name and I personally like it a lot. It wouldn’t cost any more money to change my surname but I’m ok with it and I like the tenuous Viking ancestry it gives me!

I think though I’d like to change Robert to something else but what would it be? I’d likely make Stephen my first name and then give myself a new middle name. My friend Dave would always jokingly bemoan that fact that his friends 20 years ago would always give their children rather trendy if safe names. Why not Tutmosis III who you’d find in Ancient Egypt. So that is one option I suppose!

Would I go for a catchy name? Perhaps a great sounding Greek or Persian name, Tiberious or Xerxes perhaps? I kind of like the name Harry in honour of my Grandad who was called Harold but there is another Harry who seems to have tainted that name!

Oh well, I’m certain something will turn up? Do you like your name? What would you change yours to if you could?