The Scoop On My Name Change For the Curious

Since many people were asking, here's the name story. I stopped using my given first name when I entered Junior High (Middle School in some districts). I was in a new school in a new part of the city and nobody knew me at all. My home room teacher asked each of us what we wanted to be called, and I gave my middle name. I wanted a new me for a new start in a new school. 

I attended Merril Middle School in Denver, Colorado. It was 
a brand new start for me in a new area of town where I knew 
no-one, and nobody knew me. It was a chance to reinvent 
myself, make new friends, and grow into myself. 

Over time I grew to prefer my middle name and got everyone to use it - some family members took a bit longer than others, but eventually everyone shifted over. I got my driver's license under the new name, but my passport had to be under my original name because it was a government paper. Then I got married. 

Then I got married, and the judge (because getting married by 
a judge was a LOT easier than getting married by a priest or 
a rabbi) ... well, he insisted that my first name had to be part 
of my signature because it was a legal document. The damned 
signature took up more than half of the space! Something 
had to be done. 

Suddenly I was faced with four names - my preferred first name, the first name that I never used, and my two last names, which I decided to hyphenate into a single long last name. Leaving out the name I never used (or used as a middle name under duress), I was looking at a LOT of the alphabet. I figured my name was unique enough with the hyphenated last name. Now I needed to convince the government. 

For several times I went to one of the offices of 
Social Security and waited in line for their doors to 
open so that I could actually speak to an agent. Finally, 
I was able to speak to someone who actually understood 
and was able to get my name changed in their records 
to reflect my married name without the added first name. 

After several long weeks of speaking to people at Social Security, they finally moved it through their system and my payments and account are under my name without the middle name I don't use. But I can't update my driver's license without showing proof of name that I don't have, and I can't update my passport because of the same issues. Identity has become much stricter in the decades past, and that's a good thing in many respects. However, going through this name change will strike the original first name from my name forever. I don't have a problem with that. DH does, but it's not his name. 

My driver's license is coming up for renewal, and they 
won't let me renew without all of the paperwork that I 
don't have. Getting my name legally changes will allow 
me to get my real id driver's license as well as a new 
passport. It also will make a lot of documents that I've 
signed in the past legal - such as our old mortgage 
documents, etc. It needs to be done and the sooner, the better. 

So, that's the story, in synopsis format - LOL. Of course there are many things that were issued under my legal name that won't actually be accurate any more - my BA and MA degrees, for instance. I'll live with it. I rather doubt, at this time in my life, I'll be needing my BA or MA diplomas for any reason. I just want to be able to get my driver's license renewed and a passport. That's why I'm getting the name change done.