im naned after my parents best friend - john galloway , i was given that as my middle name because my grandfather changed his name , our last name s smith ..........its very common but my grandfather was john smith an even more common name he changed his name to his middle name and moved his given name to the middle so became L J SMITH , the funny thing abuot this is a lot of SS and medicare commercials use him as an example thinking its so generic as to be a non-person --- sorry its a person ,he was a rail road man , station master in eureka springs arkansas , his photo is on the wall [at least it was in the 1960s when we visited] the depot and the rest of the town , 

that was shy of 100 years after he had served there but not by much, my grandfather worked there as well before moving north to esytablish his factory in farm country , he manufactured grist mills and window blinds - dont ask - i have no idea how they relate but he had pattents on both , maybe he was selling to both the farmers and their wives - i can only guess at this point 

but he changed his name when that factory went broke - from john l smith to l j smith , all of that happened in the 20s - 100 years ago , i have no one to ask anymore as to why , the only tying i know is that everyone called him les , that was not what i called him as we had strict rules of calling our grandparents grandfather , grandmother and then the last name smith /hoffer , 

we were not allowed as kifs to call them by any other name - im gramps in this family , thats becuase there is another side that is grandfather and my wifes side always used gramps and granny , i suspect my parents , if they were alive , might frown on this , but they are both long gone , 

today i have no issue with it , i never thought id have kids let alone grandjids but i do and they are respectful , intelligent and show promise for the future , im lucky 

back on topic ive never thought to change my name really - yes its vetry common , at one time there were seven of us with the same first and last name here in this location .........including a cop , a criminal and a gay radio talk show host , i was none of the above  when my wife and i took out our mortgage i had to sign documents that attested to not being them , 

i had not even lived in this state all that long - less than ten years - but they required a sworn statement i was not the criminal that had commited crimes before i got here , anyway it all worked out , a common name is a curse , ive been looked at very suspiciously when i checked in at a hotel too , 

but ive never thought to change my name , 

i get delayed by ATF checks when buying guns , always go through but a few minutes delay normal because of my name and i was born in a different state - always works out fine but takes extra time 

my wife kept her maiden name - numerous reasons but partly because mine is so common , 

im not changing it , i have a long scotts heritage getting here and living here that ill not give up , 

 I found out through DNA submitted to 23 and Me that the man who raised me wasn't my biological father so I wasn't related by blood to the long history of that family's exploits in America.  Suddenly half of all my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and grandparents weren't blood relatives.  It was weird and somewhat sad to realize that formerly supposed family member's exploits of some renown in the Civil War weren't of my family.  (They fought for the wrong side anyway!)  I felt like I was suddenly cast adrift on the Sea of Unknown Geneology.

All was not bad news though, I soon found the half of my blood relatives that were previously unknown to me which included two half brothers and two half sisters as well as a rich history of service in WWI, WWII, the USMC currently, and federal law enforcement currently.  In essence, I exchanged one family history for another.  It was weird at first meeting my family for the first time but soon it was as if we had known each other all our lives.

Biggest issue I have had with my name is how frequently people mispronounce a four letter last name. I've heard every imaginable pronunciation of Shea. Yet people can properly say "shea butter".

I sometimes wonder if Parents THINK when naming the children, or just go with some lineage-based thing?

I grew up with an Arthur Percy Edwards. He was known his whole life as "Monkey" because of the initials.

Then he spent some time working in Japan where the Japanese sense of humor made it even worse.

They called him "Monko", which he assumed was simply because of the difficulty Japanese have with words ending in hard syllables.

It wasn't!

In Japanese its an unmentionable word in  public. A crude reference to part of the female anatomy!