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A New Name - My Own Name - The Right Name

Yes, this is a multi-titled poem, revolutionary and bold.
It is this and more, because the time is here to feel right
about our names; the ones we would like to have, so
our friends and family would please us when using it.

A national survey that was never made, asked if each
citizen was happy with their birth name, or nickname
in use for years before becoming an actual legal name.
Results showed fifty-one percent had unhappy names.

If you are a John Paul Smith or a Jane Ellen Jones, you
are happy, so move on to read the next poem pages.
This is the beginning of a national movement to see
laws passed permitting us to select our own names.

The law to authorize three choices at three times in
a person's youth, only, would provide the changes
at age twelve, sixteen, and for life at twenty years.
This is time to choose new first and middle names.

Imagine the fun at twelve, coming into your own, to
be known as a person with a fresh new special name.
And, again, at sixteen, after maturing some, another
new name for high school and the parties and dates.

At twenty and finally away from home with a new name,
recorded by computers, you're own your own name
for the rest of your life, and with the family name to
hear, I will marry you, but never to take your name!


2007 F William Broome