If you had to change your name what would you choose?

[JamesWebbSpaceTelescope]

Image you have to go into witness protection scheme or you are on the run from the police or you want to write a book about a walk but you have lots of debts.

You need a new full name for yourself and your family. What would you choose? Would you go with your middle name, a family name or completely made up?

I would go with Elinor Gray (totally made up) DH Stewart (family name and I’m not giving him a choice in this game).

I would go with something that feels sexier than mine, like Colette McCrae or Natasha Mironov. Completely made up.

A dark haired femme fatale. (I'm old and grey)

Much as I’d love to go flowery, I guess in witness protection you want one of those names that’s so common it’s not easily googleable, i.e. it throws up so many results that it’s impossible to find any individual among them, like Hannah Jones or Emma Smith. (In my secret heart of hearts though, I’d want to be called something like Cecilia or Juliet or Helena… As for a surname, something totally made up but something that sounds very traditionally English and a little bit grand, like Greenwood or Amberley. I fancy myself as sounding like a Daphne du Maurier heroine.)

Abigail Warner

I would be Cordelia Fox

I'd go something so ambivilacious that I could be either male or female and come from any variety of countries.

Something that only barely resembles a name at all. That will need some reflection to get right but according to the old porn star name game, I would be Goldy Keeble which isn't far off my criteria.

I have thought seriously about changing my name due to abuse. I didn’t in the end as I thought I would own it instead.

I’d choose Emma Knight.

Sorry you had to go through that. Your potential name is a good one - Emma Knight sounds like a put together woman who would take no shit from anyone.

I’d probably go for a family surname but from a few generations back. I’d also want to choose a realistic first name - one that someone of my age and background would reasonably have been called, so it doesn’t scream out “name change”.

So probably something like Hannah Stewart.

Hmm…I don’t know but I’ll plump for Cecily Marsh for now.

If you’re in witness protection, something really common, or the same name as some kind of celebrity that means no one can Google. (A character who changed her identity in a Richard Osman novel uses the alias Alice Cooper.)

When I was a child, I desperately wanted to be called Jennifer, for reasons that now escape me.

Belladonna Moonshine !

Rachel White.

Sorrell de Souza

I would like to be Erin Kennedy.

I'd be a Livia or a Chiara or a Bea(trice)

Pretty but normal Italian names.

I’d be Betty Battenburg of course 😁

Mariella Douglas

I did change my entire name, it wasn’t to anything exciting or exotic, I’m far too boring for that. If it was a witness protection thing I guess a common name, or the name of a celebrity so I would be hard to google etc.

I saw a blue plaque for a Clementina Black last year. I loved that name! Looks like she was very cool too, so double whammy.

Juliet Milburn I hate my name and have thought about changing it seriously.

Ivy Carr

easy to spell and pronounce ….

my name is long and difficult for people to get right first time !

Lettice Pray

Growing up as an 80s child I hard my name and waned to be named Tiffany. Since then I've actually grown to love my name and middle name. My first name is a very common 80s name from America and my middle name is definitely a bit out there and very individual.

I went to a random name generator page and got Sequoia O’Doyle. Excellent. I’ll have that thank you.

Vanessa Jackson.

As a teenager, I wanted to be called Amy, but no idea why.