Googling names
Dec. 17th, 2003 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
triskellianI'm probably changing my name next September, and I've just done a Google search on my new name. There are 15 results in the UK, and 36 in the world, compared to 4,890 and 56,800 for my current name.
Searching on the short form of my first name with my current surname, I get 2,970 results in the UK and 40,500 in the world. The short form with my new surname would be a Googlewhack if quotation marks were allowed.
I'm thoroughly used to the idea that my name can only identify me in very limited circles, and I've always known lots of people who share one of my names (although I've never known someone who shares both). It's only now starting to sink in that the relationship between me and my name is going to change, and that having a more unusual name will tie it to me more closely in some way I don't quite understand yet.
The most notable bearer of my new name, incidentally, was an 'imbecile' who was an inmate at a workhouse in Berkshire during the 1881 census.
Searching on the short form of my first name with my current surname, I get 2,970 results in the UK and 40,500 in the world. The short form with my new surname would be a Googlewhack if quotation marks were allowed.
I'm thoroughly used to the idea that my name can only identify me in very limited circles, and I've always known lots of people who share one of my names (although I've never known someone who shares both). It's only now starting to sink in that the relationship between me and my name is going to change, and that having a more unusual name will tie it to me more closely in some way I don't quite understand yet.
The most notable bearer of my new name, incidentally, was an 'imbecile' who was an inmate at a workhouse in Berkshire during the 1881 census.
