He Wants to Legally Change His Name to His Furry Name

Hello, Papabear,

Been a long time since I last wrote and I wonder if you will remember me. But that's beside the point.

I'm righting today because I want your opinion on something. I'm 26 and currently living my parents. But I'm thinking ahead a bit to when I live on my own. Thanks to my past I've grown to dislike my birth name. Specifically, I was bullied up through high school which led to the dislike of my first name. And my relationship with my father is iffy at best, a verbal war at worst, which has led to the dislike of my last name.

When I first joined the fandom in 2009-2010, it really helped cheer me up from the hardships of my past. A lot of my good friends (all furries, but still) refer to me by my fur name rather than my birth name.

My question for you is, when I move out, is it odd for me to want to legally change my name to my fur name? I feel that doing so will make it easier to forget how bad my past has been.

I appreciate your response.

Kumori Urufu

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Dear Kumori,
 
There’s an old saying: “You can’t run away from your past.” Changing your name will not help you to forget the past. However, I understand what you are saying. There are many reasons to change one’s name: getting married, getting divorced, getting adopted, having a sex-change operation, and so on. Trying to start your life anew is also a legitimate reason.
 
I do know of a couple people who are friends of mine who have had their last name changed because they had unpleasant memories of—in particular—their fathers. So, to answer your big-picture question: no, it is not “odd” to change one’s name for personal reasons.
 
The next issue is what to change your name to. Your current name (which I will not reprint here) sounds like that of a male of Italian-American background. Your furry name, Kumori Urufu, if I have this right, means “Shadow Hippo” in Japanese. Well, whatever it means exactly is not so much the point as the fact that it is Japanese, and I suspect you do not look Japanese. You should prepare yourself as to how this would affect you socially and in the workplace. People will constantly be asking you why you have a Japanese name when you are obviously not Japanese. (And in the furry community might get you accused of being a weeb, although being fascinated by Japanese culture is common in the fandom.)
 
If you are okay with that, then fine. But if you are dead-set on changing your name, I would recommend you think long and hard about what you are changing your name to before you do so.
 
The actual process of changing one’s name legally is not too difficult, especially if you hire a service to help you out, such as NameChangeInc.com, which offers this service to adults for only $65. It is important to change your name legally so that your identity can be tracked for things such as social security, taxes, employment, etc. The good news is that if you, say, years later, decide you have made a horrible mistake, you can change your name back again.
 
Hope this answers your question.
 
Bear Hugs,
Papabear