It’s not unusual for people to change their names. Heck, many women — and the occasional man — still do it when they get married.
There are other reasons as well for a name change.
Years ago when I still went into a bank on a regular basis, one of the tellers who I had become acquainted with decided to change her first name. It was actually her middle name, by which her parents had called her, even though they had also given her a perfectly acceptable first name. Now in her 30s, she decided to right this wrong and start going by her real first name. That took some adjustment for those who knew her well.
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I also know a couple of young adults whose mothers hadn’t changed their names when they were married but had given their children the fathers’ last names.
Now in their 20s, these young people have decided to change their names to their mothers’ last names. Call it maternal solidarity.
So, there are a variety of reasons why people might change their names.
However, countries also change their names.
One of the most controversial was in 1989, when the military junta in Burma changed the country’s name to Myanmar. For years, many countries refused to recognize the change and even journalists wouldn’t use the new name.
That stubbornness eventually evaporated and I haven’t heard the country called Burma for a long time.
Some name changes fly under the radar. In 2016, the Czech Republic decided it was now officially Czechia. Not many folks outside of Czechia use that name, and I wonder how many inside Czechia use it either. I certainly don’t remember it being used during the last world juniors hockey tournament.
Most of these national name changes have little relevance for The Western Producer because we don’t talk about those countries much.
But one official name change might be more significant for us.
Turkey recently informed the United Nations that it wants to be known as Turkiye from now on, presumably to disassociate itself from the tasty bird.
This name change would require some action at the Producer if it caught on because we write about Turkey — I mean, Turkiye — quite regularly.
So far no decision has been made. Perhaps we should strike a committee, maybe in time for Thanksgiving.
