Names are a funny thing. Our parents choose them and then, saddle us with them for life—although in many places these days, there are mechanisms in place for people to change their names, and here I’m thinking of (where was it?) Japan, where people were changing their name in order to get free sushi. Which, quite frankly, is hilarious.

But, what’s in a name? I never liked mine as a child, ever. It never felt right and besides, no one ever used my full name so, in the end, what was the point? My father, up to a certain age, called me, Dandelion. While my mother, when I was in her good books, actually remembered my name, though she was prone to cycling through the names of my 4 brothers before she got to mine.

Which was odd, given mine is nine letters long.

And you, do you love or hate yours? And, more importantly, if you hate it, would you change it? Or, like me, have you changed it? Yes, yes I know, shocker, I haven’t used my full birth name in almost 30 years.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. There are many reason why people like me change their name, some are for positive reason, other are a little nefarious, and some do it for reasons we will probably never know about.

Of course, people change their names almost daily across the planet, when they get married.

So whether you’re name’s Sky, Mimosa, Brooklyn, or Mercedes, I hope you’re happy with your name.

Talking names, here are some questions for you:

1. Do you like your name?
2. Do people regularly misspell/mispronounce your name?
3. If you were going change your name to anything else, what would you choose?
4. Do you go by your first name?
5. Do you have a middle name?
6. Do you have a nickname?