Name change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different from their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law jurisdictions are restrictive.
A pseudonym can be regarded as a name adopted to conceal a person's identity, and does not always require legal sanction. Additionally, there are other reasons for informal changes of name that are not done for reasons of concealment, but for personal, social or ideological reasons.
Read more about Name Change: United States, United Kingdom, Civil Law, South Africa, Name Change On Religious Conversion
Famous quotes containing the word change:
“We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)