kudzujean

I mean, change your name for reasons other than a woman taking her husband's name when she gets married, or, in these days, a couple hyphenating both their last names.

I have a first name that is very unusual. For about a decade, I told new people in my life to call me by a different first name, one which is old-fashioned but quite common.

I stopped doing that some time ago, and have for some time gone by the first name that's on my birth certificate.

I've read that sometimes incest survivors change their names, but I think it goes further than that. I think it extends to other kinds of abuse. I've been sexually abused, but not by family members. They doled out other kinds of abuse, though.

Anyway, I also read that changing your name in such a case is a way of saying that the abuse happened to somebody else.

I also used to think that if my name were different, I'd be different, and people would regard me differently.