<p>I sort of changed my name in college. Growing up my family always pronounced my name the “scandanavian way”. My name is original, but not unknown in America so people would always pronounce my name the “english” way, and I didn’t blame them. Well going through my entire grade school career correcting people on how to say my name got old. So in college I switched to the American pronunciation and I’m happy with it. Although my high school friends make a big deal about it, it’s their problem not mine.</p>
<p>I think I will definetly just introduce myself as the new name at Orientation. I hope they don’t have cheesy name tags! Although they would probably allow me to write in my name if I was like oh, by the way, no one calls me that…
Do they often do those name tags at Orientations?</p>
<p>^ I did .</p>
<p>If you contact the school and ask them that you’d prefer to be called ____ I’m sure they’d change it on your nametag.</p>
<p>First of all, you can just tell everyone that your “college” name is your middle name and you prefer to be called that. </p>
<p>Secondly, my cousin actually went from being called Billy until high school, and then when he moved from Florida to Texas, he made everyone call him Will. When I visited him in Texas and called him Billy (as I had my whole life), everyone looked at me like I was insane. In other words, it’s not a big deal and people will catch on.</p>
<p>yep - ive always hated my stupid name so when ppl asked me how to say it fully, i just tell them to call me what id rather be called.
facebook was such a big deal though - ppl from home kept asking why i changed it on there and i just had to keep replying that hey, its a new world, a new name. no biggie. i dont see why <em>other</em> ppl should have a problem with <em>your</em> name.</p>
<p>Definitely change your name if you want to…now is a good time or even after college. I wish I did.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any name-specific examples? Like what your real name is and what you’ve been called, where it came from, etc.</p>
<p>I go by my middle name.</p>
<p>Yes can we get some examples? I like my name, just curious as to which ones people want to switch from.</p>
<p>I went from Eric (middle school and before) to Chuy (highschool and when I’m back in my home town) back to Eric (college), but I never really chose to switch, it just happened.</p>
<p>The guy I know changed from Burrell to his middle name, Dustin.</p>
<p>I would go with what some other people have suggested – say your real name, but tell them to call you the new name…if its completely different and they ask why (they probably wont) then say its your middle name, or just say ‘its what everyone calls me’ and leave it at that</p>
<p>go for it. i have a friend who prefers to be called leah instead of samantha. i think that’s her real name… hahaha. no one really remembers.</p>
<p>I’d write my name, but this forum doesn’t have a way to make symbols.</p>
<p>I have a friend named Morela who goes by Jade. People don’t even know her real name. If it’s gonna bother you, why stick with your old name?</p>
<p>I was contemplating doing this… and I’m transferring colleges this Fall, so it could work… <em>chinstroke</em></p>
<p>What’s weird though is that I’d just be changing nicknames. I never go by my full name (which is my username haha.) I always wished I went by Joss, even though my name isn’t pronounced Jocelyn and it just adds more reason for people to mispronounce my name. It sometimes kind of bothers me that my name is a word/emotion (Joy.) I don’t know if I dislike it enough to change it, though, since it’s such a big change but I really do like that name… any advice?</p>
<p>two of my friends did the switch to middle name, just put that as your first name on facebook. As long as you have some logical justification for why you’re usuing a diff name (i.e. nickname, middlename, real first name is too foreign/hard to pronounce) no one will really bat an eye when they find out it’s not your legal name. If your only reason is “I like this one better” then people may find you a little weird.</p>
<p>Hi, parent here.</p>
<p>This is really no big deal. A lot of the adults I know went through changes of what they wanted to be called as they passed from high school to college to grad school to real life - sometimes multiple changes (I still get a kick out of calling my dad’s younger brother by some of the silly permutations he went through and he’s getting elderly!)</p>
<p>It helps if the new name is related to your legal name, a nickname based on it or a version of your first, middle or last (Smith can become Smitty, for example). If you make it up out of whole cloth, there will be more questions, but you know what, these changes are what everyone expects of you during this time. This is the time that you figure out what you are going to be - and it’s no surprise to any adult that you will change and change again.</p>
<p>Do discuss this with your parents, though. They may be bemused, but you don’t want them to be hurt. They named you what they did for a reason, so be respectful when you talk to them about it. I’m sure they will understand - they probably did the same thing themselves!</p>
<p>And do be aware that your siblings and uncles and aunts will call you “Little Joe” or whatever until you are old and grey <lol>.</lol></p>
<p>I knew a girl in middle/high school who’s name was Dinah but who asked everyone to call her Molly. For the first few days people wondered why, but then she explained that it was her grandmother’s name and she was used to /liked being called by it. If you have an explanation (aka used to it, unsatisfied, etc.) then you could call yourself muffin instead of penelope and people wouldn’t even notice after the first couple of days.</p>