I was listening to a programme on BBC Radio 4 as I shifted the dust yesterday morning.  The name game.   From this I learned that the number of people changing their name by deed poll has doubled in the past five years and should top 70,000 this year.  With a one hour express service that costs just a few pounds, people are able to fill in forms and make the change to become someone new.

I suppose after an acrimonious divorce it is understandable for a woman to want to change her name.  A family name that can become the butt end of jokes is another, but 70,000 reasons?  Whatever could they be?

I do know three sisters called Faith, Hope and Charity, and another family where the mother Violet named her two daughters Iris and Heather.  With my luck, had I been born into the last family I might end up being named Dandelion or Daisy!  A perfect reason to make a change!  I heard of one couple who gave their son all the names of a football team – At least it was a soccer team (11) and not a rugby (15) team.  There was a friend of my father’s who called his first born William Pius, my father asked with disgust if he really wanted his son to go through life being called: Willie Pee?

What would make you change your name?

If you were to make a change, what name would you choose?

And for me, how about:

Chastity
Eudora
Fidelia
Jessamine
Letitia
Rufina
Sophronia
Theodosia
Vertiline or
Zylphia