Changing Your Name

[MUSIC]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. After a lot of serious things this morning, we're going to wrap it up with something a little lighter. A call-in for anyone who has changed your name for any reason other than marriage. A call-in for anyone who has changed your name for any reason other than marriage. 212-433-WNYC, call or text, 212-433-9692. What did you change it to, if you want to say it? Most importantly, why did you change your name, if not simply taking your spouse's name for marriage?

This is a follow-up to the call-in we had on Monday, where we heard moving stories from some of you about converting your religion, inspired by the book by the singer Cat Stevens, who converted to Islam back in the 1970s. Well, he also changed his name, as many of you know, to Yusuf Islam. He's got a book out. That was one call-in inspired by that on Monday, your religious conversion stories. Today we're going to go to the other part of that. Have you changed your name for any reason other than marriage? Why have you ever changed your name? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text.

Often, name changes reflect a change in the way you see yourself or want to be seen by others, right? Maybe that was a part of your religious conversion, as we heard from many of you on Monday. Maybe your birth name represented an old version of your spirituality that you no longer identified with. Historically, to cite another reason, immigrants to the United States have Anglicized their names for a variety of reasons, whether they feared xenophobia or wanted better job prospects.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, Asian Americans have been Anglicizing their names since the first major wave of immigrants in the late 1800s and into the 20th century, a practice, they say, also common among Jewish and European immigrants of other religions. Did your family change their first and/or last name to adopt more American-sounding names?

People also change their names these days to reflect their gender identities. Maybe you've changed your name due to changing family dynamics. Did you know that Vice President JD Vance changed his name several times in his lifetime, eventually taking the last name of his grandmother, who helped to raise him? There are a few examples of why people change their names. Why did you, if for any reason, other than marriage? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We'll take your calls and texts right after this.

[MUSIC]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your calls and texts on why you changed your name other than for marriage. Tarkin in Greenwich, you're on WNYC. Hi, Tarkin.

Tarkin: Hello. Hello, Brian. I love you. I just want to say briefly, I was born James. I went by Jamie for many years, which was a little bit difficult when The Bionic Woman came out. In any case, Jamie Summers. When I got to junior high, high school, I discovered punk rock, and I was going through a phase trying to figure out who I was. I decided I was going to change my name. I told my brother, "Tomorrow, call me Fek, F-E-K," and immediately forgot about it.

He had shown me a couple weeks later an article about a page in Parliament, who briefly before Page Day, which is a time at which they read the names of all the pages aloud into the record, I think just to be obnoxious, he changed his name legally to Tarquin Winton Finton Bin Fatang Bus Stop Old Biscuit Barrel.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs]

Tarkin: I thought that was very funny and obnoxious, so I decided it's Tarkin from then on, and it stuck. My parents call me Tarkin now. My brother named his music studio after it, our record label. It's all this stuff that somehow it just stuck because we had pulled off a prank, and we thought it was really funny.

Brian Lehrer: That's hilarious. Very briefly, what was wrong with James?

Tarkin: I don't think anything was wrong with it. When going through adolescence, you're trying to create new characters for yourself, try things on. I don't know that I would have stuck with it, other than I thought it was a great success that I pranked my teachers. All the kids thought it was funny and kind of cool at the time. It just stuck.

Brian Lehrer: I mispronounced it when I first put you on. I hear you. It's Tarquin. Thank you for starting us off. Henry in Fort Lee, you're on WNYC. Hi, Henry.

Henry: Hey, Brian. I grew up with my stepfather's last name. I didn't change my first name, but I did change my last name. It was an Anglicized name. His name was Schmulowitz. He couldn't get a job in the music industry with that name in the Midwest, so he changed it to Shaw. I grew up with Shaw and never felt it was very Jewish. I used my mother's maiden name, which is very Jewish. I raised my kids with my mother's maiden name. It's a great name, Blumenkrantz.

Brian Lehrer: Ah. You changed your last name to your mother's maiden name because you wanted to not disappear your Jewishness?

Henry: Yes. When I was working in New York, someone named me Hank one day, so I became Hank Blumenkrantz. That's about 25 years now. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Hank. Blue in Ridgewood, Queens, you're on WNYC. Hello, Blue.

Blue: Hi, Brian. I changed my name to Blue at the age of seven.

Brian Lehrer: What was your original name?

Blue: My original name was Libby, and I never really felt that it fit me. Then I got in a softball accident and had to get blue stitches in my head, and started asking everyone to call me Blue and never looked back.

Brian Lehrer: You got in a softball accident at seven?

Blue: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. What does Blue mean to you?

Blue: Honestly, I think at the time I was very much like, had a tomboy identity, and I associated it with that. My name, Libby, was really close to my sister's name, Abby. I didn't really like being Abby and Libby. Honestly, I always identified-- There's this Bob Dylan quote. His original name was Robert Zimmerman. He always said some people are just born with the wrong name, and I stand to that. I got three legal services in college and just changed it to Blue. Now, everyone calls me Blue.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for calling us. Call us again. Let's see. In a text message, somebody writes, "I legally changed my name to Lewis due to gender transition regions, female to male. It was a tough decision because I had been named after one of my father's beloved great aunts, but the name was very feminine and had no real masculine equivalent." There's somebody. How about Oogie? Is it Oogie or Oogie?

Oogie: Yes, it's Oogie.

Brian Lehrer: Hi, Oogie.

Oogie: Hi. Am I on the air? Holy shit. I'm so famous.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, sir.

Oogie: [laughs] I've been a long-time fan. Yes, my name is Oogie. It was like my secret Korean--

Brian Lehrer: I have to take you off because you said one of those words that you're not allowed to say. Let's see. Am I allowed to put them back on now as we've taken out that word? Yes. Okay. Oogie, be careful so we don't have to censor you again.

Oogie: Oh, did I just swear? I'm sorry.

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Oogie: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Brian Lehrer: Because we have to abide by certain language rules here. Anyway, go ahead, tell the rest of your story.

Oogie: Anyway, yes, it was my secret Korean name, but growing up in the suburbs of Connecticut, it was the worst name you could ever have, so I went by Jong, which is kind of Korean. We have three-syllable names. Oogie is my middle name. Anyway, it only came out in my 20s that it was my secret name. Then I finally embraced it.

Brian Lehrer: Oogie, thank you very much. Let's see. "I changed my last name," a listener writes in a text, "after my cousin was a wheelman and a Staten Island mob hit and flipped and turned state's evidence to stay out of jail." Several people are texting to say they kept their mom's maiden name or changed their names to their mom's maiden names. Let's see if we can get one more in here in a call. Ada in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ada.

Ada: Hi, Brian. Second-time caller. My name is actually Iva, but I came to the United States at the age of 10, and everyone started calling me Ada. I figured it was befitting to keep my American version name to Ada.

Brian Lehrer: Very good. Thank you very much. You did that so efficiently. We're going to take one more. Carlos in Manhattan, we've got about 20 seconds for you. Hi, Carlos. Carlos, do we have you?

Carlos: Yes, hi. I'm here.

Brian Lehrer: Hi.

Carlos: Thanks so much. Very quickly, born and raised in Puerto Rico, Carlos Davila Caballero. Once I got to the mainland for college, discovered that you cannot have two surnames under American standards. At 21, I legally changed it to honor my mother's legacy, the Caballero part. Now it's in my passport, all the documentations. Now that she's passed, it's the best honor that I could bestow upon her legacy.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for the honor of calling us. Thanks to all of you for telling us the fascinating and moving stories of your name change. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Stay tuned for All Of It.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.

Produced by WNYC