Thread: Can changing your name help you get a better job?

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.

It depends on where the other guy with your first and last name is. If he resides hundreds of miles away, don't change your name. Also, if the age isn't the same as yours, that should stand out.

My hunch is that most HR departments with large employers check more thoroughly than you think because of the very thing you mention. The danger would be with some idiot doing the bare minimum to check applicants at some smaller company.

Me and my name have been through hell together, no way am I deserting it now! We belong to each other!

I wouldn't change it, make them change theirs!

My name is very unusual I was teased unmercifully in school about it and I thought of changing it to some generic name many times. I now am glad I never did for this very reason I can say now looking back I was blessed with a name that is unusual no one will ever mistake me for another.

Get a noble prefix and or suffix; Sir TigPlaz, or Lord TigPlaz of Nottingham, or go German; Count TigPlaz! All it takes is the purchase of some land (.3mm X .3mm) somewhere in Royal patriarchal Europe.

Then go to work on designing your own crest!

Where I live, changing the name is like walking a MILE barefoot on a street rife with broken glass! THAT painful. Plus, it affects your life in ways you’ve never even imagined! And then changing it back……pfft.

I’m just too proud of my name anyway and trust me when I say this, there aren’t many WanderLusters walking around on this planet. I checked!

Originally Posted by mgtower

Get a noble prefix and or suffix; Sir TigPlaz, or Lord TigPlaz of Nottingham, or go German; Count TigPlaz! All it takes is the purchase of some land (.3mm X .3mm) somewhere in Royal patriarchal Europe.

Then go to work on designing your own crest!

Or just or, Mohammed TigPlaze Kumar. Bet that will solve all his issues!

Originally Posted by TigPlaze

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.

I wouldn’t bother changing your name Tig.

Here in Ireland the process is quite straightforward, it’s all the hassle that comes with it that isn’t – bank accounts, pensions, revenue, medical the list goes on, and on, and on.

The particular problem you mention, being confused with a piece of scum, is a biggie but when it comes to discrimination there are all sorts out there that will discriminate because of a name or a place of birth or some other bullshit and you have no way of telling if you might even be making your employment prospects worse.

You are who you are. Stand up, be proud and fuck the begrudgers!

Originally Posted by K-Dog

It depends on where the other guy with your first and last name is. If he resides hundreds of miles away, don't change your name. Also, if the age isn't the same as yours, that should stand out.

My hunch is that most HR departments with large employers check more thoroughly than you think because of the very thing you mention. The danger would be with some idiot doing the bare minimum to check applicants at some smaller company.

He lives a couple states over, so it's a long ways away. He's also about two decades younger than I am. So this may just be another one of my goofy thinking aloud moments.

Originally Posted by TigPlaze

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.

Another solution: Come back home!

When all this faceplant stuff was new a friend ran my name and came up with a half dozen things I was not. One was a child molester, who of all things ran a summer camp too. Wow, what a country.

Not looking for a job, it didn't affect me. Hopefully you're ok, but you know how Murphy's law can sometimes do you.

Originally Posted by Smoking Wizard

Another solution: Come back home!

I have seriously considered moving back to the country my grandparents came from, or one close to it. I have the language skills.

As an aside, I've often wondered why some folk keep a distinctive 'cultural name' - even when it evidences a particular subset of a certain ethnicity. It's already been established that 'John Smith', or 'Anne Johnson', on an application gets taken more seriously than 'Davonte Mukhrabi' or 'Laqueefa Flynn'.

And yet I've seen applications here from First Nations folk, such as 'Frankie Fryingpan', 'Johnnie Pissinajar', 'Ricky Canapotatoes', and 'Regina Saskatchewan' (which sounds like a real hooker name).

Originally Posted by Eddie Willers

As an aside, I've often wondered why some folk keep a distinctive 'cultural name' - even when it evidences a particular subset of a certain ethnicity.

It’s one of my pet hates here in Ireland when people translate their given names into their Gaelic equivalent and insist on being known by that translated bastardisation.

It’s political & social posturing, it’s quite common, and it sickens me.

If you really want and if it indeed would be beneficial in this case, I wouldn't care much about changing mine - only thing would be all the legal paperwork and shit that you'd have to revise, that would be a big hassle.