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cmr1990
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Joined: 13 May 2015
Age: 33
Posts: 20
Location: Ohio, United States

01 Jun 2015, 3:27 pm

For all my life I have never really felt a connection with my birth name. Some background (warning its pretty depressing) about my birth name to maybe give insight to why I don't prefer it.

My biological parents were both drug addicts. After I was born I lived in a vile disgusting house full of drug addicts. I was adopted at 1 and a half by my (adopted) mother and her husband (who was biologically my uncle). I was a very sick little baby and toddler. I almost died multiple times and because of this my ASD was overshadowed by my physical health issues.

Because of knowledge of these facts my name (which is Cory btw) never really had an emotional connection upon learning the aforementioned information. I don't hate the name and actually have a slight interest in it (If I didn't already choose the name Alliance for my future son I would use Cory for him, maybe as a middle name.). Just knowing what I know now I associate that name (when its being used for me) with my early life and traumatic experiences that occurred during use of it in adolescence.

My question really is this should I change my first name legally, and how would I go about breaking the news to my family and expecting them to change years of habit using my name. Does anyone else here feel the same way or similar about their name. Or have any of you guys changed your name and if so do you regret it now or do you feel like it was a good idea. I wanna hear what you guys think :)

Here were some of the names I was considering (in order of likeliness of using them.)
I tried to pick names that started with C to keep my internet persona (CMR) intact.

Connor (Conner? I have seen it spelled both ways, I love this name mostly because of its meaning in some origins of "hope" and "future" two words that define me well.)
Callum (I LOVE this name! I don't know why, its just really is a name I don't see used a lot (in the US) and would make me stand out even more then I already do, Being both Gay and Autistic will make you stand out BIG time! It also means "Dove" which is a sign of "Peace" something else I think defines me well.)
Nathaniel (I like this name quite a bit too, not sure why though. If I would use it I wouldn't mind if people used "Nathan" instead however I would prefer the full name used.)
Yukio (I really like and respect Japanese culture, even though I wanted to avoid Japanese names. This particular one's meaning really got me. Yuki= Hope, Happiness , o=male/boy "Hopeful Boy, Happy Boy")

~cmr



redrobin62
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Joined: 2 Apr 2012
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Posts: 13,009
Location: Seattle, WA

01 Jun 2015, 5:31 pm

For years I "changed" my name because people mispronounced it, misspelled it or made fun of it. It caused me considerable embarrassment and anxiety which, no doubt, fueled my descent into alcoholism and drug abuse. I use my full legal name now and if anyone has a problem with it, it's their fault, not mine's.



cmr1990
Hummingbird
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Joined: 13 May 2015
Age: 33
Posts: 20
Location: Ohio, United States

01 Jun 2015, 9:01 pm

redrobin62 wrote:
For years I "changed" my name because people mispronounced it, misspelled it or made fun of it. It caused me considerable embarrassment and anxiety which, no doubt, fueled my descent into alcoholism and drug abuse. I use my full legal name now and if anyone has a problem with it, it's their fault, not mine's.


aww (hug) sorry to hear. I've been there, not drug or alcoholism (straight edge) however I have developed some addictions from depression that I haven't kicked (the main one being soda). The only time I experienced my name being misprounced was a childish "co-wiiee" which some of my closer friends use because they think its a cute "pet-name" (girls... lol)