Brian Laird on WNYC, and after a lot of serious things this morning, we're going to wrap it up with something a little lighter.

A call in for anyone who has changed your name for any reason other than marriage. A call in for anyone who has changed your name for any reason other than marriage. A call in for anyone who has

changed your name for any reason other than marriage. 212-433 WNYC, call or text. 212, 433-9-6-92.

What did you change it to if you want to say it? Most importantly, why did you change your name,

if not simply taking your spouse's name for marriage? This is a kind of a follow-up to the call-in

we had on Monday where we heard moving stories from some of you about converting your religion,

inspired by the book by the singer Kat Stevens, who converted to Islam back in the 1970s.

Well, he also changed his name, as many of you know, to Yusuf Islam.

And he's got a new book out.

So, yeah, that was one call in, inspired by that on Monday, your religious conversion stories.

Today we're going to go to the other part of that. Have you changed your name for any reason other than marriage? Why have

you ever changed your name? 212-433 WNYC, 212-433-9692 call a text. Often, name changes reflect a change in the way you see yourself or want to be seen by

others, right? So maybe that was a part of your religious conversion, as we heard from many of you on

Monday. Maybe your birth name represented an old version of your spirituality that you no longer identified with.

Historically, to cite another reason, immigrants to the United States have anglicized their names for a variety of reasons,

whether they feared xenophobia or wanted better job prospects.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, Asian Americans have been anglicizing

their names since the first major wave of immigrants in the late 1800s and into the 20th century,

a practice, they say also common among Jewish and European immigrants of other religions.

So did your family change their first and or last name

to adopt more American-sounding names? People also change their names these days to reflect their gender identities.

Maybe you've changed your name due to changing family dynamics. Did you know that Vice President J.D. Vance changed his name several times in his lifetime,

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