I've been very seriously considering doing so. The main reason is that I feel that my name doesn't really belong to me. My father named me after himself and growing up, I emulated him for my entire identity until I became self-aware. He liked golf, I liked golf. He liked the Washington Redskins, I liked the Washington Redskins. He liked hard rock music, I liked hard rock music. Whatever he hated I hated. Whatever he believed, I believed. Others thought it was cute we were so much alike and had the same name, but in reality I feel like until just a couple years ago or so, my identity was far too intrinsically tied to his. Now that I am trying to figure out where my persona ends and his begins, I really want to change my name to what my mother wanted to name me. Furthermore, I don't want to be named after the kind of man who would name his child after himself. I love and respect my father, but damn does that take a huge fucking ego.

The only thing keeping me from doing it is thinking about the adjustment. How strange would it be to tell people I've known my whole life to call me something else? Would I even know to answer to my chosen name? Would my loved ones judge me? Would my father take it as a rejection?

It makes me anxious either way. To either live with my current name or my chosen name, so I wanted to ask you what your experiences were, *especially* if you were named after a parent. I figure that with our generally distant relationship with a sense of self, it would make sense to ask you all.