Googling New Name

Sarahkayfa

So- I've been googling my current name and my future married name.

It's been interesting. There are 33 women and girls with whom I share my current name ( one woman posing on top of a toilet in clubwear) and that drops to 23 with my future married name. Thankfully no axe murderers or anything. 

Has anyone you've googled influenced wether or not to change your name?

NcsuPsych

Why on earth would I allow GOOGLE to influence whether or not I'd change my name?

Google doesnt make the name, you make the name.

That's silly. . .but yeah, you can find a lot of interesting things by googling.

KatyRoseM

Some people might be concerned about being confused for someone else I suppose.  But no, I didn't do that.  I am sure that there will be more people with my new name.  Its annoying, but whatever. 

cupcakesfrosting

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_googling-new-name?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:14Discussion:d7f14d7a-0fae-492c-8af4-03a65477efc3Post:d84b7ed8-fffa-4912-8e38-a7e0324c1e9a">Googling New Name</a>:
[QUOTE]So- I've been googling my current name and my future married name. It's been interesting. There are 33 women and girls with whom I share my current name ( one woman posing on top of a toilet in clubwear ) and that drops to 23 with my future married name. Thankfully no axe murderers or anything.  Has anyone you've googled influenced wether or not to change your name?
Posted by Sarahkayfa[/QUOTE]

Really? I'm going to be the only Mrs. CC that matters, as far as I'm concerned. That's so weird.

specialk84

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_googling-new-name?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:14Discussion:d7f14d7a-0fae-492c-8af4-03a65477efc3Post:b2af399b-fbe8-4249-b6bc-6ecb4ac6dc3e">Re: Googling New Name</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>Why on earth would I allow GOOGLE to influence whether or not I'd change my name?</strong> Google doesnt make the name, you make the name. That's silly. . .but yeah, you can find a lot of interesting things by googling.
Posted by NcsuPsych[/QUOTE]

<div>This.</div>

LesPaul

I did find an author with my married name.  I might just have to read her books to see if she's a decent writer.

RamonaFlowers

I just tried Googling my maiden name, I found only one other person with the same name as me-and all I found was that she has a private FB and Myspace account. In general, there's only like 15 people in the entire US that have my maiden last name, and I'm related to 1/2 of them.

Googling my married name, I found only one other person with my name-and the only thing I really found on her was that she's a professional pet photographer. DH's last name isn't really common in the US, either.

Regardless of what could/would have turned up on Google, that had no bearing on my decision to take my husband's name. I never cared for my maiden name, even as a small child I was 1,000% certain that I would drop my maiden name if I got married.

quirky75

I agree. Googling my new name would have no bearing on whether I wanted to change my name or not.

According to Google, there are only 3 other people in the US with my "new" name. That's about as exciting as the results got....

kgettingmarried

Why on Earth would you let Google influence your life decisions???!!!

Some people take the internet way too seriously.

Summer2011Bride

I will go from having a very common name to having a very uncommon one and I love it!

But no, I wouldn't let Google decide for me if I were going to change my name or not.

Sarahkayfa

Well. I may be in the minority here, but as a person who is self-emloyed, my livelihood does depend on my professional reputation. So it's pretty important to know who shares my name and who will potentially be confused with me! You're living in a fantasy land if you think potential clients and employers don't look you up online. I'm not saying you shouldn't change your name, but especially in this economy you have to be careful. 

NcsuPsych

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_googling-new-name?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:14Discussion:d7f14d7a-0fae-492c-8af4-03a65477efc3Post:ac43e8f4-55c4-4bff-82ee-a4ecc8b5f9eb">Re: Googling New Name</a>:
[QUOTE]Well. I may be in the minority here, but as a person who is self-emloyed, my livelihood does depend on my professional reputation. So it's pretty important to know who shares my name and who will potentially be confused with me! You're living in a fantasy land if you think potential clients and employers don't look you up online. I'm not saying you shouldn't change your name, but especially in this economy you have to be careful. 
Posted by Sarahkayfa[/QUOTE]

I dont care if an employer looks me up. However, if they ASSUME that one of the # of people that share my name is me, aside from the <em>actual</em> me, then shame on them. Besides, they might look you up, but I'm pretty positive that they don't use GOOGLE unless they truly feel theres a reason. 

Honestly, IMO, I think its pretty shallow to judge a person's name soley on what pops up from a search engine.

If you don't want to change your name, dont. However letting a friggin search engine persuade you, again IMO, is stupid.

Plus, I'm pretty sure your own parents didnt search google when they named you and you've done just fine with that (I'm assuming).

AdeleDazeem

I'm in the minority here, but I see Sarah's point.  What if your married name is the name of some porn star who will have 467 google hits before your professional name comes up?  I would imagine that she relies heavily on advertising and word of mouth.  This could be a problem.

However, if you've built your business up around your maiden name, it seems logical to keep your business in your maiden name so as not to confuse potential clients.

Some people on the Baby Names board google their future child's name to see how common it is, make sure it doesn't match with anything unsavory, etc..  ::shrug::  To a certain extent, I think it has its place.  Would it really sway my decision?  I would say yes if my future last name was Anderson and my first name was Pam.  You betcha.  But those are extreme cases.

JustineOlivia

I'm a writer, and so Google has influenced what I'll be using as my PEN name...other than that, I wouldn't have it any other way but to change my name to the new Mrs. D!

RamonaFlowers

My husband Googles people before he interviews them, so no, I'm not "naive" about such things. But it still wouldn't have had any bearing on my decision. I find it really hard to believe that a potential employer would be so dumb as to assume I was the only person on the planet with that name, and therefore 100% responsible for anything negative associated with it.

Had a porn star or axe murderer or some other high profile person of ill repute shown up on a Google search, I'm quite sure that whomever was looking to interview me would be able to tell immediately upon seeing me that I was not the same person.

AdeleDazeem

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_googling-new-name?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:14Discussion:d7f14d7a-0fae-492c-8af4-03a65477efc3Post:86525520-4ff6-4bc5-bf76-d94925562de7">Re: Googling New Name</a>:
[QUOTE]My husband Googles people before he interviews them, so no, I'm not "naive" about such things. But it still wouldn't have had any bearing on my decision. I find it really hard to believe that a potential employer would be so dumb as to assume I was the only person on the planet with that name, and therefore 100% responsible for anything negative associated with it. Had a porn star or axe murderer or some other high profile person of ill repute shown up on a Google search, I'm quite sure that whomever was looking to interview me would be able to tell immediately upon seeing me that I was not the same person.
Posted by RamonaFlowers[/QUOTE]

I'm talking more about social situations with my Pamela Anderson comment.  I would grow very weary of:

"What's your name?"
"Pam Anderson."
::snicker::   "Like the actress?"
::Sigh::  "Yes."

As far as businesses are concerned:
Of course people know the difference between you and the porn star with the same name.  But if I was self employed and relied on recs from other people, you bet I'd use a name that was uncommon and would come up immediately in a google search. People have no patience to sift through garbage to find what they want. 

But, again, these are extreme circumstances and not at all the norm.

marinabreeze

I think both sides have good points.  If you are self-employed or in a profession where your name is everything, I would take whether or not the potential married name is already associated with someone of ill-repute (or is way more famous than myself) into consideration.  I think on some level, you kind of have to.  That said, if I was in a position where people knew me from my name alone, like if I were heavily published or owned a successful business, then I would think twice before changing my name, but that's me.

FWIW, I googled my name, and there are 3,280 people with my name.  When googling my married name, the number drops to 22.  And from what I saw on Google, no serial killers or porn stars, so I think I'll be okay.  I prefer having a less common name.  If I were further into my career in academia or if there weren't another person known in my field with my first and last name, I'd consider not changing my name.

minxi

I think the only good that will come out of changing my name is people won't find a picture of me from when I won ASB president in high school. haha oooh, those eyebrows!

Other than that, *shrug*. My name will go from being the only one on FB to sharing one with 5 other people and when googled, a Taipei-based photographer is the main result.

Cynthia1207

I'm not changing my name but it has nothing to do with Google.  I googled my ''future married name'' and turns out there's one girl who's a pretty popular news anchor that has the same name.  My maiden name...I'm original!  The one and only. 

nattykins

I'll be the only one on Facebook with my married name and everyone knows that facebook = the world! :P

Google brings nothing up, either. I guess I'll be rather unique

missy68

Didn't influence my decision, but I am apparently the only one with my current married name.

John used to get asked if he was related to a certain infamous person from 15+ years ago, but not so much anymore. It did help with the spelling, though.