What’s in a Name? Identity and Control

* As a recent name-changer myself, I feel a personal responsibility to respond to Rich Tosches’ “A Boy named . . . Trout” (March 14).

Obviously, name and identity are intimately linked. Changing one’s name is often perceived as an identity crisis. People want names to be fixed, like gender.

Names create order in our disorderly world. Changing one’s name is seen as a selfish act, an aggressive inconvenience. It says, “You, accommodate me. I want a change.”

(Since I changed my name from Cheryl to Elyse) most of my friends refuse to make the change. They say, “OK fine, change your little name, but I’m still calling you Cheryl.”

They refuse to take my calls at their offices when I use my new name. They laugh, they sneer, they worry about my psychic health, they accuse me of jeopardizing my career through the confusion, but most of all, they convince me that there’s a lot in a name.

ELYSE PEARLSTEIN

Culver City

*

My compliments to Rich Tosches for an enlightening article about the young man who changed his name to Trout Fishing in America.

Tosches thoroughly grilled Trout during the interview session, without carping on the obvious. In fact, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the article an “11.” Oops . . . did I say scale ?

In closing, let me say that it was a pleasure to find the story of Trout nicely wrapped in a newspaper.

RANDY SCHULTZ

Studio City