[extropy-chat] unusual names

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > Sean Diggins 
> > ...
> > 
> > Yeah, I know.
> > Alreay corrected it in a previous post...
> 
> People with unusual names must go thru hell in
> elementary school.  Jeez it was hard enough being
> Greg Jones.  Somehow the kids managed to come up
> with wordplay, or failing that, Pope Gregory.  
> Imagine if I had been Mortimer Phlegmhorker.

Try Tymes.  Especially if you hang around those well
versed in science fiction.  Double-especially if your
professional work and interests include turning into
reality what some people thought would only be science
fiction in their lifetimes - and if the course of your
life often reminds people of old sayings (like a
certain famous Chinese curse) about interesting, ah,
"current events".

But despite all that, I wouldn't give up the
advantages of an (apparently) unique name.  No
possibility of being confused for anyone else, save
for people deliberately pretending to be me.  This
counts extra when people can google for your name, and
all the results with your full name really are about
you - if people see something wierd or unexpected: no,
that really is a side of me they hadn't seen before,
as opposed to the "must be someone else with the same
name" that is usually true for most people in that
situation.

Even my usual pseudonym (reserved for forums which use
such) appears so far to be unique, in that I haven't
seen anyone else use it (again, unless someone was
deliberately pretending to be me).

> My brother-in-law's name is Sean.  He got so tired
> of
> being called Seen that he changed it to Scott.  {8^D

Try Adrian - which some organizations from time to
time assume is actually Adrienne or the like, and in
any case a female-only name (so my self-identification
as male "must be a mistake").

And no, I didn't change my name to be unique.  This is
what I was given at birth.  I do not know if I would
have changed it while in K-12 had I not already had a
unique name; I know I was aware of my uniqueness back
then.