By any other name: idiosyncratic spelling of monikers, feminists hyphenating their married names, and countries with new appellations are all part of today's name game.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.
• Position: PARTING THOUGHTS

AS A KID, OR PERHAPS AS YOU got older, did you ever think about whether your first name was right for you? Did you ever wish your parents would have given you a name more virile if you were a boy or more romantic if you were a girl? As an example, the story is told of a woman who was unhappy with her moniker, which was Mary Womanjawski. She went before a judge to have it changed and the judge asked what she wanted her new name to be. "Jane," she replied.

An early instance of name-changing was recorded in the New Testament when Saul, the persecutor of Christians, became a convert and subsequently was known as Paul. Name changhig can be tough on record keeping, as single women who marry can tell you. Some married females choose not to alter their maiden name in our age of women's consciousness and run into trouble, as did Hillary when Bill Clinton held the highest office in Arkansas, and Arkansawans did not like the Governor's wife using her maiden name of Rodham. Others incorporate their former last name as a middle name so as to keep a semblance of personal identity.

Movie stars long have been renamed by their studios to one that was more visually attractive, or which sounded better, for the roles they play. How would Marion Michael Morrison ever present the tough guy image of John Wayne, the most successful cowboy movie star in Hollywood? Moreover, could Norma Jean Baker have the sex appeal of Marilyn Monroe? Singer John Denver, who died in a tragic plane crash some time ago, wanted to identify with the West and country style music and knew that his real name, Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., simply wouldn't do, and so wound up with a simple moniker that seemed just right lot him. Lana Turner was an exception in the old days and kept her last name of Turner. Her Christian name of Julia, however, was thrown to the winds.

Sports figures often followed suit, with Cassius Clay essentially leading the movement with his new appellation of Mohammed Ali. So, too, Lou Alcinder, another convert to Islam, renamed himself Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He may have been happy with that change, but I am sure basketball announcers had to practice pronouncing that name so that it would roll trippingly off the tongue in their game broadcasting.

Editors sometimes have to be careful to spell someone's name not the standard way, but in the idiosyncratic manner the person desires. Caitlin, a popular girl's name, has been spelled Catlyn, which perhaps looks more...