
How changing my name to “Spider Mann” ruined my life - ChuckMcM
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2461-my-new-legal-name-spider-mann.-yes-i-have-some-regrets.html
======
pavel_lishin
> _" Online registrations are canceled within minutes, tables at restaurants
> are canceled and given to others (makes surprise dates for partners a
> hassle), and renting a car is even worse," Mann says. One time, "I reserved
> and rented a car through Enterprise online. Confirmation email and
> everything in hand. I thought going through Costco Travel would eliminate
> the usual rigmarole, but I was wrong. A few days before [my trip], I called
> Enterprise to verify the reservation. The woman on the other side was nice
> about it, but those familiar words stating that they had canceled the
> reservation because they thought it was a joke came."_

Nice, he got the human-equivalent of "Null", the magic name that breaks
certain reservation systems.

~~~
rootlocus
Off the top of my head, I can't think of any language where "null" == null

~~~
maze-le
I can think of a badly designed database interface. All SQL databases handle
NULL as a special value, that cannot be compared by equality. But if you want
compare the return value of a sql prompt in some language you can make a
fallacy like:

    
    
        sqlstring = "SELECT 1 = NULL;"
        returnValue = callDB(sqlstring)
    
        if returnValue == "NULL"
          // here you go...
        end
    

A solution would be to let the database handle NULL-values:

    
    
        sqlstring = "SELECT 1 IS NULL;"

------
coldtea
> _" I truly believe that a name is an identity ... I am strong in my feeling
> that this is the name that fits me and that embodies the type of person I
> am."_

A guy who can't admit when me made an error or stupid impulse decision?

A person who thinks two words (name, surname) define them, instead of their
actions and achievements?

Something that anybody can get with $100 dollars and an application is clearly
not what "embodies the type of person" they are.

~~~
noncoml
I agree, if you change your name to Spider Man or I.C. Weiner you kind of had
it coming. But on the other hand there are people born named Harry Poter long
before Harry Poter was even written and face similar problems.

~~~
seabee
The difference is a real-sounding name like Harry Potter (or Michael Bolton:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_BaMx_n2_hM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_BaMx_n2_hM))
attracts comments rather than suspicion.

~~~
noncoml
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221925/The-real-
lif...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221925/The-real-life-Harry-
Potter-reveals-sharing-wizards-life-misery.html)

It's daily-mail, so take it with a bit of salt.

------
userbinator
This guy probably has it worse:
[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5)

...or him:
[http://mw.eco.br/ig/prof/ReinhardtAdolfoFuck.htm](http://mw.eco.br/ig/prof/ReinhardtAdolfoFuck.htm)

~~~
monk_e_boy
My teacher is called Mrs Willy. Just change your name.

~~~
acheron
Ages ago I had a teacher in 7th grade named "Mr Bonar". I have to think that
if that's your name, "junior high teacher" is the worst job you can pick.

~~~
billh
There is a school teacher in Wisconsin whose birth name is Marijuana Pepsi.
She has a rather interesting story:
[http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/40874017.html/](http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/40874017.html/)

------
spodek
He suggests the name change caused the deterioration. Since we know
correlation is not causation, I propose a more likely situation:

that one thing caused both: a personality that would choose to go through the
effort of changing his name to a cartoon super hero.

~~~
mortenjorck
If you read the article, the author cites quite a few very believable effects
of having such an outlandish name. While I don’t doubt that having such an
eccentric combination of puckishness and impulsivity _would_ cause problems
professionally and personally, those are not the problems directly addressed
in the piece.

------
twobyfour
What would ever make someone think that wasn't a horrible idea in the first
place?

------
fold_left
There's a guy in Leeds who changed his name to Megatron, I didn't believe my
friend when he told me but it's true [https://scontent-
lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65...](https://scontent-
lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/424255_3426822074804_1638995115_n.jpg)

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

------
dnautics
Isn't he lucky? He has an ultrafilter for people who have certain hangups...
Which is most people, but those that remain must be valuable.

~~~
dTal
You can use this as a justification for any avoidable stupid personal
decision, like poor fashion or failure to bathe. I don't see why judging
someone for doing something dumb is a "hangup", or why missing obvious clues
to someone's personality makes them "valuable".

~~~
dnautics
because it seems like the 'deeper' problems he seems to be facing are rather
quotidian (not being properly valued by management? not being taken seriously
by a romantic partner?) Hell, some of us should be so lucky as to get a job or
a romantic partner in the first place.

------
ShabbosGoy
Why don't we drop names entirely? I think UUIDs are much better for
identification purposes.

~~~
JadeNB
> Why don't we drop names entirely? I think UUIDs are much better for
> identification purposes.

Then, with only a little snark meant, why did you choose 'ShabbosGoy' rather
than a UUID as your HN identifier?

~~~
mikeash
HN limits usernames to 15 characters, so a UUID won't fit.

------
adamconroy
Spidey sense didn't detect these problems then?

------
urda
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

------
mrmr22
A dude I used to work with changed his name to "Nobody In Particular." It was
hilarious. Reminded me of the movie "My Name is Nobody. I didn't believe the
rumors at first until I saw his paycheck come through the mail line.

------
ChuckMcM
This was on Eric Goldman's blog and I thought it nicely illustrated the notion
of different contexts. Here is this guy who thinks "Wouldn't it be cool to
have a name like Spider Mann?" and went ahead and changed his name.

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Theodores
I think any changes to the name your mum and dad gave you are suspicious. The
only world this is okay in is celebrity world, authors don't take on the
identity of their pen name as celebrities do.

The blogger Perez Hilton gets on fine doing the celebrity gossip stuff he
does. I doubt he would get a regular job with the name. So maybe Spider Mann
has got it wrong, if he went full celebrity all would be okay.

------
threepipeproblm
Some people get face tattoos.

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IshKebab
Why not just change your surname too?

