Remember when Prince changed his name to a copyrighted love symbol, and since no one could pronounce it, they called him The Artist Formerly Known as Prince?
Okay, well, I don’t know anyone who’s gone that far, but I do know people who have changed their names, and whenever it’s happened, I’ve always honored the change. People ought to be called what they want to be called, right? I mean, to me, that seems kind of obvious. But I know not everyone agrees because I’ve seen the resistance.
My little brother, my sister-in-law, and two childhood friends have changed their names during the time I’ve known them. Each time, there were holdouts. People who thought it was stupid. People who insisted on using the old name even though someone they loved was asking them not to. I have a friend who was called Katie growing up, but I’ve never known her by that name. She’s Katherine to me. She’s Katherine to everyone. Except to her mom and her sisters who “will never call her that.”
I’ve never understood that position.
Until now.
Chad and I have an acquaintance who is changing her name, and I’m feeling resistance. It’s because I don’t like the new name. I mean, I really don’t like it. I said that to Chad. He said, “So?”
I said, “I don’t think it’s a real name.”
Chad said, “It’s what she wants to be called.”
Sensing the wrongness of my position I said, “I know, but what if she wanted to be called International Sports Arena?”
He laughed. He said, “If she wanted to be called International Sports Arena, we wouldn’t be friends.”
I think that’s really beside the point, but by then the argument had been derailed. We spent the rest of our walk trying to come up with name changes that would dismay our friends and family.
So here it is, the question of the day: Should you always honor a name change? Have you always done it in the past or have you been resistant? And what if the name is really, really strange – does it matter?
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And now for something completely different… In 1976, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch came up with a simple yet rather radical idea for a short film: He mounted a camera to the hood of his sports car and drove like a maniac through early-morning Paris. The result is the thrilling (wildly irresponsible) and hypnotic C’était un rendez-vou (It Was a Date). Claude Lelouch was arrested after the first showing.
