I’ve been thinking about changing my middle name. Recently I conducted some internet research to see what would be involved.
There are many checklists and FAQ’s available online. For women getting married, men who are a little more non-traditional and getting married, people undergoing gender reassignment, and, of course, people who want to change their name for various other personal identity reasons.
There were some unexpected limits that I discovered, however, regarding what one cannot choose for their new name:
– You cannot use a name that would be intentionally confusing. Such as a number or punctuation — for example, “10,” “III,” or “?.” (A man in Minnesota once wanted to change his name to the number “1069″. Minnesota’s Supreme Court ruled that he could not legally do so, but suggested that “Ten Sixty-Nine” might be acceptable.)
– You cannot choose a name that is a racial slur.
– You cannot choose a name that could be considered a “fighting word,” which includes threatening or obscene words, or words likely to incite violence.
(Damn, no numbers or obscenities allowed. There go all my ideas for my new name.)
