Surnames

[ceri]

This isn't an announcement of a decision made or anything close to it; this is me thinking aloud and knowing I'm in the very early stages of consideration. I like to be clear about the difference.

In the wake of turn off social media presences in my legal name I find myself, first of all, really, really enjoying the mental quiet. More time to be purely at my own pace, thinking my own thoughts. I'm in touch with nearly everyone I want to still be in touch with, but at a slower tempo. So that's good right there.

What I've been wondering about the last couple days is just how much of a tie I ever want there to be publicly between my old identity and my new one. It's not an impermeable wall or anything, I've written far too much overlapping stuff already for that. (I mean, I could ditch this choice of name and start over but I don't really feel inclined to do that.) The deal is that my surname is rare in the first place and very rare in my professional field, so much so that it'd pretty much always be a flag "yep, that's me".

Wondering in an idle sort of way whether I want to have that happen or not.
 

Comments

[seishun]

I dated a woman in college who had a very distinctive last name, and she said that even if she got married she'd keep doing business under that name because it was unusual and memorable. Sounds like you're going the other direction. You could take your mother's maiden name, maybe? I'm not sure what's involved in legally changing one's surname.

[onomasticator]

As a straight, middle-aged, cis-gendered white man I assume I should be making this decision for you. Just give me a few more inputs and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

[ceri]

*laugh out loud* Thank you, sir, always nice to know who I can count on. :)

Seriously, though, this is something I'll ramble about at a slow pace as thoughts come together.