There's some piece of crap who happens to have my exact name (first and last, but not middle) who's a POS creep who ended up on the sex offender's list. He's also done a bunch of other stupid petty crime like vandalize shit and shoplift from stores. So if you google my first and last name, you find stories about what this asshole has done, including molesting his ex-girlfriend's then 12-year-old daughter.
So, great, I'm job hunting for an upgrade to my current position, and anyone who googles my first and last name, without my middle, will find all that crap about that goon and all the shitty things he's done. We're not the same age, and, as I stated, we thankfully do not share the same middle name, but still. My last name is somewhat unusual. I don't know that people looking at resumes would take the time to figure that out. They'll just google and be like, "Wow, not hiring this perv."
I'm frustrated enough to consider changing my name. That would suck because I'm proud of my family name, and my European heritage behind it. But that brings up another problem. Nowadays, it's in vogue to bash men, and especially those of European heritage. Imagine that my name is Edward George Baumhaus. It's not, but use that as my name for convenience. My great great grandmother was a Native American. Maybe I want to celebrate that fact. So maybe I could legally change my name to something like Edward Swift Eagle.
Would that end the crap of people confusing me with this other Edward Baumhaus dirtbag? Would it also help against the legalized discrimination against people of European heritage? I hate the idea of changing my family name, but if it worked, maybe it would be worth it. And maybe I could later just change it back later on.