Member-only story
What It’s Like to Legally Change Your First Name
Please don’t congratulate me for getting married
As early as I could remember, I’ve hated my Chinese name. It was a completely masculine name. I felt my female identity was challenged.
Growing up, I constantly dealt with people’s surprised reaction toward my name. So much so I tried to apply for a name change with the local authority when I was 17 years old.
I was denied. The reason they gave me was that 17 is too old for a name change. Later, I found out that was not true at all. I may have encountered a disgruntled civil servant who was trying to wrap up her day without getting more work from a kid.
When I moved to the U.S., I had a new problem— English speakers butchering my Chinese name badly.
To make things easier, I picked out an English name (Italian to be precise), Stella, from a dictionary. After living in the U.S. for 10 years, I was ready to make it official.
I had been warned of the hassles. However, to celebrate the end of my first decade in the U.S., I was ready to say goodbye to all of the confusions whenever I call customer service.
After filling out numerous forms, sending documents to various government agencies, publishing notices on newspapers, court appearances and hundreds of phone calls…
