How Can I Erase My Identity and Start Over?

I don't even know what that is. I'm about to pass out, actually, but I'll try to make it through. Yeah, please don't. I can't carry this. So I've got a great news item for you. Ready, Okay. So it turns out the sovereign Nation of New Zealand actually enforces its law that you can't give a child the name over a hundred characters long, and you can't give a child a name that could prove socially handicapping. You want to you want to hear an example? Charles Manson, No, no, no,

And arguably I like it. I think it's very lilting and sweet, but it's arguably worse than Charles Mason. There's an a year old girl who was in the midst of a custody battle with her parents, and the judge found out what the girl's name was and how much she hated it, and actually made her a temporary ward of the Corps so she could legally change her name herself. Tallula does the hula from Hawaii? I'm not kidding. Is that two names? One name? No, that's her first name,

you know, it's it's separate words. Um, and I think they actually even spelled it correctly, like the is not capitalized, that kind of things. But I was reading this BBC article on it, and um. They brought up some other examples of names in New Zealand that some made it through and some didn't. There are a couple bizarre ones that made it through, like number sixteen bus Shelter bus shelter, Yes, um.

And another one that made it through is Midnight Chardonnay, which I think Q Grant probably has designs on that poor child. Yeah, I think it's no secret how that child was conceived exactly. But are a few more, um that didn't make it through, like Yeah, Detroit, sex fruit and um the twins, Fish and Chips. Uh, the the the the federal government or maybe even local government moved to block those names. Really, but um, I'm curious though. It is Charles W. Bryan. Is that the name your

parents gave you? Did you change it? No, Charles Wayne. I was named after John Wayne, which is a true story, Is that right? Yeah? I didn't know what the W stands for. Yeah, I'm Wayne, now I do. Well, if you have your original name, you know anything about this kind of thing? Is this in your field of expertise? Perchance? Uh?

You know, my wife actually changed the spelling of her first name, although not legally, but uh, well, she spells it, you know, when she fills out her driver's license records and on her bank account, it's all spelled the Emily with an i e and not Emily with a y. But she never legally got it changed. But it just kind of goes to show how you can change these official documents without really having the court say you can, yeah,

just by saying precedent right exactly. But there are legal routes to do this kind of thing, right right, And I think I know what you're getting to, yes, Chuck, How could one erase their identity and start over. That's a great question. Um. Unfortunately, I hate to spoil this for the listeners, but there's really no way that you can completely erase your identity, uh in this day and age, um, at least in the United States without the government doing it for you. Yeah. Technology has made it a lot

more difficult to commit just about any kind of crime. Huh. Yeah. In the old days you could do there was one thing called a paper trip, which is you could assume the identity of like a dead infant and um, get their records and claim their identity as your own. Yeah. But yeah, you can't do that anymore though, because you know computer records nowadays and everything it's it makes it

really difficult to completely erase your identity. So I guess even if you do change your identity, there's still records

of your former identity linking the two together exactly. So if you're on the run from somebody like you can change your name uh pretty easily if you're if you have special circumstances, you can change your Social Security number, but you have to prove to the government that someone's either been misusing yours and another reason you can change your social uh is, if you're a victim of domestic violence and you really need to, you know, go underground

where your ex husband or ex wife. I guess if you know your victim of spousal abuse as a husband, which is actually um not paid nearly enough attention to husband abuse. I'm not kidding. It actually is a real problem. Men don't feel uh the least bit confident in admitting that they are abused by their wives. They're not gonna tell you. It's out there, you know. Sure, well that's a podcast for another day. Sure, well, let's do it.

We'll put it on a calendar. Agreed. So, uh, Like I said, you can change your social for several reasons. It needs to be approved. You can change your name. It depends what state you live in, uh, for the uh the process you go through, but it generally costs, you know, fifty bucks or under. And a judge actually rules. I thought that was interesting whether or not you can change your name. Well, that's only if there's objections. Right, Well, they make a ruling regardless and it's always yes unless

there's an objection. Okay, So you basically to change your name, you have to advertise it in the in the legal organ that usually the county newspaper. And this is for the great state of Georgia that we leven. Ok Um, So it does that for several weeks. And you know if if somebody notices and they have an objection, they can object. And I actually um know of an instance

where that happened. You remember Jeff Killooley, Oh who doesn't. Yeah, so apparently kneecapping America's sweetheart, um is, he can get you some really bad press in this country, right because here he famously uh hit Nancy Kerrigan, ice skater, Nancy Carrigan and the knees with a crow bar. Yeah on on behalf he said, he claimed of his wife Tanya Harding, who was in competition for Karagan for you know, America's sweetheart, that kind of thing. Um. So after the whole thing

dies down. Um, A couple of years after Galilee petitions to have his name changed to Jeff Stone. There were plenty of Jeff Stones that for that lodged formal objections, including oddly enough, I heard the guy who played Jeff Stone the son on the Donna Reed television show from the sixties. Isn't that weird? Yeah? So people do object, but I think you have to be um a little unsavory for somebody not want you to share their name.

And I would think Galilee would have changed his name before that, just for the simple fact that his name was Galule, right exactly. Yeah, that's just me. Yeah. So, um, those you've you've given us a couple of good reasons. Can you give us any famous cases of of people changing their identities? I can, Well, let's hear it. Well, there's a really recent one. Radovan credits Um the Serbian leader from Bosnia Herzegovina. Right. Yeah, back in the Balkan Wars,

there's a lot of ethnic cleansing going on. Um and Ratti was one of the ones who was committing genocide against the Muslims in that area. Uh So the war's end, uh, the u S indictes him for crimes against humanity, he drops out. Apparently he was still something of a hero to the Serbian population around there. He was hiding in plain sight to an extent. He actually grew a beard and became a an alternative health guru and was living

quite publicly in Belgrade. Finally, we get a very pro pro American, pro West leader uh in in that area and um like the next month ravages under arrest and on trial. So war crimes is a pretty good reason to change your identity as well. Yeah, I think, you know, when I was researching this article, I found that a lot of people that enquire about this on the internet, you know, you can get certain websites will say they'll change your name, but it's really just a big scam.

They'll give you a fake idea and or reuse a bunch of the same records over and over. And it's really for those of you out there that look and these is just a big money rip off. That's one of those things where if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself, I would imagine. Yeah, you know, especially if you're having trouble with your identity through identity theft or whatever. But I guess if your identity gets so ragged out, it doesn't matter who you

trust it to to change it for you. But I wonder if the if the percentage of people changing their identity is on the rise, what with identity theft just exploding all over the place. Yeah, I think, I mean, that's one of the problems that the Internet is identity theft, and it's also one of the problems of people not being able to change their identity because of the paper trail via computer, So it's sort of a double edged sword.

So check you want to give our listeners the number they can call if they're interested in changing their Social Security number. Yeah, if you're a victim of spousal abuse or um. If you're you know social Security number has been tampered with, can call one eight hundred seven seven to twelve thirteen to inquire to the s s A about you know what you can do and for all the great details you can read Chuck's our coal how

can I erase my identity? And start over on how stuff works dot com and stick around to find out what article makes Chuck think of Frankenstein. Right after this, we're back. Thanks for hanging around. I don't blame you. What article is it, Chuck? Well, it's sort of misleading. It's not Frankenstein, the doctor who created the monster, but it's the awesome seventies instrumental groovy song Frankenstein. D D dude, ain't d we have to pay anybody? I don't think

so okay to anyone? It would be Johnny Winner because that's his song. And uh, you can ask me why. Yeah, this is kind of you. Not only did we start, you misled me to mislead the readers. And now I'm just as confused as ever. Why would that possibly remind me of frankenst Like, what article are you talking about? Well, because Johnny Winner famously is has albinism along with his brother, fellow musician Edgar Winner Afar Winner Group, they're both albinos.

Currently it runs in the family. So the article how albinism works is that's the one said you just sit there and Frankenstein plays over and over in your head. Every time you're in over and over, I get the ear worm. Well that's fantastic, Chuck. So you can read all about albionism and all sorts of other interesting articles on how stuff works dot Com. Check it out for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com? Let us know what you think.

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