What’s in a name?

Garry Hertzberg, practising attorney at Dewey Hertzberg levy and Host of the Laws of Life with Garry Hertzberg on Cliffcentral.com, writes:

Johnny Cash once recorded a song, A boy named Sue, in which he lamented that the meanest thing his daddy ever did was name him Sue, and from then on he was laughed at by all the girls in town and so he grew up mean.

Often you come across a guy with a funny name and you automatically take them less seriously, but in reality, it’s the parents who have been thoughtless and mean to their children by giving them these oddball names. It’s the children who have to walk around with these names for their whole life. The parents may think it’s a great joke, but it can really cause trauma.

Take for example the 328 people called ABCDE in the USA and how they must have been ridiculed from preschool and beyond. Back home we have names such as Two Rand Ndlovu, Matric Examsion (sic) Phelephe and SundaytimesKoerantSithole. These are not pet names, these are legitimate names that appear on their ID books.

I had a person call me a few months ago with a name too terrible to print. He said people weren’t taking him seriously because of his name, and this was affecting his ability to function in society. He was constantly embarrassed and asked me how he could legally change his name to something more aligned with social norms.

It actually is very simple, I sent him to Home Affairs to get the three forms he needed as they are not available for download – one form to change his surname, one for his first and second name, and another to apply for a new ID document. He also had to give a good reason for changing his surname in writing, this is not very difficult as any good reason should be accepted. There is a fee which is quite reasonable but the process does take a long time.

That’s all there is to it, there is no need to be saddled with a name you simply can’t bear, even if it does make you grow up tough.