Would it be wierd to have a work name? If not help me find one.

[Freakishlycommon]

I have the most common name that ever existed. I'm sure you can guess. I've spent my whole life at school, university, work, school playground etc having to add a surname on as there are thousands of us.
Anyway I'm starting a new job next week in a small company. There are about 10 women. Currently 3 share my name. However there is another lady starting in the same day and my heart sank when I found out that yes she also has the name. So that's 5 out of 11. Potentially very confusing and I don't want to spent years being known as short x or old x or just a surname.
Anyway so I wondered whether to just say call me y to make things easier.
So I need suggestions assuming you don't think it's ridiculous. I want a nice normal name for a lady aged 46. But nothing too popular of course.

My sister and her two sister in laws are all sarah

What's the middle name? I would go with a derivative of that, since you don't want to actually be called your mothers name. It will make sense to colleagues if you chose go by your middle name, given the number of other Sarahs. Introducing yourself as something totally different might seem a bit odd.

Instead of a new name what about doing something to force which adjective they add to your name? So instead of being short Sarah or pale Sarah you could be purple (hair) Sarah, or face tat Sarah?

Seriously though, I think a completely new name will just get frustrating if you forget to respond to it. Middle name or Sarah-something (Jane, Rae, May?) Is probably easier.

How about the town your from? At least there's a true connection.

How about Sossie, Sadie or Suri. Even Suzie...

Or Reyah, Leah

I have a terribly common name (funnily enough, one of the ones on your alternate list).

A name is supposed to be a unique identifier, and mine just isn't. I can't even phone my best friend or my MiL and say "hi, it's xxxx" because they'll have to try and work out which of 16 xxxx's I am. I have always gone by a nickname with family and very close friends, but it's not something that would work as a work name. I have always been xxxx T or short xxxx or Welsh xxxx etc etc etc

Anyway. I decided to change it when I moved to a new country. I changed my facebook, my email, told all my friends etc etc.

...aaaaaannnnndd... every time I met someone new I accidentally introduced myself as my old name. 40 years of conditioning. Am still dull old name and always will be.

My aunt was named Sarah on her birth cert but nicknamed Sadie all her life (she's in her 70s). Quite common up here (Scotland).

you mentioned you are 46 (hence maybe something from the baby lists of 2017 might be a little out of place?) so perhaps you could look for one of the less common names for your birth year?
e.g.:
www.babycenter.com/top-baby-names-1971.htm
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalestop100babynameshistoricaldata

failing that i would go with others' suggestions of maybe a middle name or nickname/variation of your current name

I like Sadie. It is a commonly used nn for Sarah so would be perfectly natural.

Having a common name is really annoying. In my office there are currently 3 x Elin, 3 x Lowri, 2 x Bethan, 2 x Rhiannon, 3 x Gwenno, 2 x Delyth, 2 x Manon, 3 x Gareth, 2 x Dewi and 2 x Rhys. Drives me insane!

Sally? Sadie? I think they're known nicknames for Sarah.

I know it's a bit dull and unadventurous but why can't you all be Sarah but with the initial of your surnames too?
Eg Sarah P, Sarah J etc.
I've just had two Jacobs in my class and everyone naturally calls them Jacob N and Jacob L. Easy

I've done that for years rainbow. I don't like it but it's necessary. But then there might be 3 people called Sarah J for example.

One previous job had 5 Sarah's
4 Claire's
3 Sharon's
4 Debbie's
2 Lynns
A Nicola and a Lisa
That puts us firmly in a certain age bracket and was very confusing!
I thought the names I suggested above weren't that common Pikachu. Maybe depends where you live?

That's the other problem with Sarah. No nicknames.

Isn't Sally a nickname for Sarah?

Do you pronounce it sahr -a or sare-a? Could you change one to the other, or what abut Zara?

Sarah goes well with a hyphen second name, you could pick one, Sarah-Jane comes to mind, but I'm a Dr Who fan.

What about Sadie?

I would really only consider Sally or Sadie, as they are known nicknames/diminutives derived from Sarah.

Perhaps not what you would choose but Morag is the Scottish version of Sarah in case that might be an option

Ooh Morags much nicer than Sarah. Perhaps too much of a change though.

Haven't read everyone's posts only ops so this may have been suggested but could you just drop the h and be called Sara?

Is your name Emma by any chance??

Haha, just read the rest of the thread, sorry!

Saraya? Sara? Sally? Sadie - some of those are actually nicknames for sarah

I'd worry about not turning round if someone called my new name

Friend of mine called Sarah goes by saz.

TL:DR the entire thread do I don't know if anyone else has suggested it, but what about Sally?

My great nan was called Sarah but most people just knew her as Sally (I don't know the reasoning behind her using Sally, I just always presumed it must be a variation of the name Sarah).

So best options appear to be keep Sarah or choose Sally or Sadie. Objectively I prefer Sadie. I just think I would suit Sally more. Sally could be an overweight middle aged woman. I imagine Sadie as young and cool and gorgeous. Definitely not me!

Objectively I think Sally is a better known nickname for Sarah which ought to reduce the practicality issues.

But if you like Sadie why not be her? You can have a work persona that isn't 100% you - most people achieve this with clothing and attitude but why not a name?