What’s in a name?

Some people love theirs. Others hate it and would change it if they could. It’s your name — not just your first name but the whole package.

How it trips off the tongue; the cadence from forename to surname, the combination of vowels and consonants. Along with your genes, prejudices, and all your clothing up until the age of seven, it’s something you were landed with, without any say in the matter.

You can change it by deed poll. You have to pay a few bob to a solicitor and €60 stamp duty. (Stamp duty is the kind of meaningless tax that is the government’s way of saying “THAT’S the why”).