Because this one is near and dear to my heart, apparently.

[xifeng]

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1.) Shit, no. I hate it. I hate it so badly I'm not going to tell you what it is, and I rarely mention what it is unless it's necessary for some reason or another. I wish to God my parents hadn't inflicted it upon me; they meant well, and objectively it is a good name, but it's not who I am at all. I don't identify with the name anymore, and I think of myself as Chaya or l33, not my birth name. Let's just say that if you give your daughter a name you think is So Beautiful And Graceful And Refined, you're pretty much gunning for her to grow up and be squat, foul-mouthed, klutzy, sarcastic, and possessed of oddly specific interests. LET THIS BE A LESSON TO YOU.

Also, my WASPy given name is incongruous with my Yiddish surname, does not go, and does not fit me. Also also, I hate every single last nickname for my given name, and worse than that, I hate the fact that people apparently think they can call me whatever cutesy-wootsy little monosyllable they want, without having the decency to ask first. My experience has been that no matter how polite I am about saying that I don't go by X nickname, people still get butthurt. I get kind of touchy about this because a.) nicknames weren't used in our family when I was growing up; the lolmom calls X-chan and me by our full names, even though neither of us uses them, and b.) it has happened in situations where it shouldn't, like a job interview for fuck's sake. It's one thing if the person asks if I go by my full name or if I have a nickname; I don't mind that, because at least they're asking instead of making assumptions. The next person to engage in the latter, however, will get verbally stomped, and I don't care if they cry.

TL;DR: Uh, no, you bastards are calling me by MY preferred monosyllable, thanks.

2.) I do have the opportunity to change it, if I can scrape up enough for court and publication costs. In fact, because this is America and I can, I fully intend to scrape up enough for court and publication costs, and then change it. Christ alone knows when this is going to happen, but it will. Hopefully in the next year or two. (<--which I've said about a shitton of other things, admittedly)

3.) Chaya Leah. And you can all still call me l33, so nobody has to suffer from cognitive dissonance! OMG ISN'T THAT GREAT??? :D

Comments

[pixelation.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you also go by Chaya. I <3 it! How much would it cost to change your name legally?

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

It's a fairly recent thing; I'd pretty much decided that at some point (depending on finances etc) I would get rid of my original name. I had been going to change my first name to Leah and retain my original first name as a middle name, and then the voice in my head was like, "you still hate that name so why would you do this?". So Chaya it is. :D I ♥ it too, though explaining the pronunciation is going to be a bitch. (The C is silent, as in most Yiddish or Hebrew names. Odd how I reject my father but not his heritage XD)

Court costs would run me about $130-$135--not that much in the grand scheme of things, but when you make the miniscule profits I do, it's a huge amount of money. Indiana law requires publishing your intent to change your name in the local paper; fortunately, it's a small town, so it's fairly cheap, but that's still MOAR MONEY. Also, I'd kinda like to pay down my debts first so it doesn't look like I'm trying to dodge creditors. :\ Indiana law does allow common-law name change, but it's a lot more watertight to go through the court system. So yeah, don't know just WHEN I'll get to it, but I plan to get to it. :D