<p>Well, not really full-on change my legal name, but should I ask people to call me something else in college? I've always really disliked my given name and wished I had a different one for pretty much my entire life. I prefer not to mention it, but it's not a bad name, it's even a bit popular for the year I was born in. But I really dislike it.</p>
<p>And how do you think I should go about doing so? I already know two people in my school (of over 20,000). One I've known for years and the other I've just been talking to about the team that I'm joining and she's captain of. But I'll be meeting her and obv a lot of other people at Orientation in a week. Any advice from anyone?</p>
<p>Yeah, just introduce yourself by what you want to be called. I switched from a common nickname back to my full name (think Matt -> Matthew or Liz -> Elizabeth) when I got to college.</p>
<p>Eventually people did hear of high school friends/family calling me by my nickname (through my Facebook profile mostly) & asked, and I just explained that I decided to switch. No biggie.</p>
<p>Well, its harder said than done if you want to completely change it. Mostly because if they do a role call in class, they say your name(although sometimes the prof might ask you how to pronounce it, so you can easily say people call me INSERT). Its very possible to do though, I've changed my name from my original to something else back to my original, but I only switched back about a year or two ago and people still call me by the other name. You just have to be adament about it.</p>
<p>I've speculated on a full legal name change, but I don't even know the ramifications of that.</p>
<p>One of my friends went to a school with lots of people he knew from high school and he went from "Will" to "Bill." The only people who made any of deal about it were his high school friends when he got home, and that was in a teasing I've-known-you-forever fashion. Otherwise, no problems. He didn't make a big deal out of it, so no one did.</p>
<p>If you really dislike your given name, just start introducing yourself the way you want to be called. Going off to college is a perfect opportunity for reinventing yourself. Yes, your family and high school friends will have a hard time adjusting and will still call you by your original name, but anyone new that you meet will use your new name. </p>
<p>(Personal note: It's been 40 years since I went to college, but by now, the only people who still call me by my given name -- which I really, really hate! -- are my parents and my siblings. My husband, my friends, and my professional colleagues all know me by a different name.)</p>
<p>I noticed that many of the colleges that my son applied to this year included a space for "Preferred Name" in addition to "Legal Name" on their application forms.</p>
<p>I was thinkin of changin my last name (which is Norwegian and 12 letters, no one has gotten it right on the first try) but then everybody remembers me as the kid with the weird last name. So I got that goin for me...which is nice.</p>
<p>I want to do this too. I want people to start calling me by my middle name because my first name is terribly common and boring with no viable nicknames. I was thinking I could easily just introduce myself by my middle name and say thats what people call me, but what about when someone from home visits or they meet them somehow? I just feel like that would be awkward when I'm like "oh yeah I just renamed myself no big deal"</p>
<p>haha Bethyy we're on the same page then! I'm going to school pretty much really far from everyone I know (I was going for culture-shock..) so it's easy for me I guess. </p>
<p>kindaslick89, I love my last name, too! It's only 5 letters, but it's two words, most people don't say it correctly and always ask questions. But I totally enjoy the attention haha, not going to lie. </p>
<p>It's pretty sad, but I just logged on to facebook and was like hmm how should I change it there. Perhaps put my "college name" as my middle name and keep the first on there. Or else the other way around.. college name first then old name? What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies and advice everyone!</p>
<p>razoredsuitcase, we actually are in the same boat since i'm going to college like 7 hours away from home (driving) and without knowing anyone. So it should in theory by easy to change my name but i guess i just know that sooner or later people from college and home will meet and be like ***?? so i dont know if i should just tell college people that people call me by my middle name or tell them that thats just what i wanna be called.
oh and i think i'm just going to put my middle name up on facebook so it doesn't seem as random that i'm going by it now.</p>
<p>my friend did that throughout high school- went by a totally different name not related to her real name at all. she ended up legally changing her name this past year.</p>
<p>yes, totally change it if you don't like what people are calling you. i think my name is fine, but the strangest thing that happens is, when i tell someone my name, especially after they've seen it in written form, they confuse a letter in my last name, and somehow add it to my first name, thus giving me a nickname i never asked for. it's really annoying, but i just correct them, to avoid being called that nickname in the future. they even had my work badge in that stupid nickname. at first i thought it was some sort of sick joke, and thought it'd be funny to have them think that's my real name, but i wasn't gonna be called something i hate my whole time at work. that wouldn't be very enjoyable.</p>
<p>I think it's weird when people are like, "hi my name is Matthew, but you can call me Jason" and I'm like "uh ok is that your middle name?" and they are like "no, my middle name is Steven." Then I can't remember if your name is Matthew, Jason, or Steven.</p>
<p>I recently found out that a guy I know goes by his middle name. I had no clue because he never made a big deal out of telling people about it. I think it's best if you just say "hey my name is <strong><em>" instead of saying that your legal name is _</em></strong>, but call me ___. Then I'm wondering how in the world you came up with your new name and then can't remember which is which.</p>
<p>Haha, I did just the opposite of what you're talking about. All through highschool I went by a name that's nowhere close to my actual name or middle name (Chuy). The majority of people had no idea what my real name was, or that Chuy wasn't my real name, which lead to fun times when an old friend would call me my real name and everyone would be surprised. The best, though, was when an old friend that knew me by me real name was talking about going to a movie or something with a mutual friend and he said that the friend had mentioned taking Chuy. So my old friend was talking about me but had no idea.</p>
<p>I got to college though and thought about keeping it, but I decided to just revert back to my real name since I kind of like it and it was just easier. Back at home I'm still Chuy though.</p>