Top Law Schools

.

syd625 wrote:This may be a bit of a silly question, but here it goes. I have an unusual first name (in the vein of Apple, North, and Candy) and don't know if I need to consider changing it for professional reasons, ie for hiring purposes or firm life. Do any of you have non-traditional names, or know someone who does, and, if so, how did you/they handle it? Thanks!

I wouldn't see it as a bad thing. I mean, you can't be blamed for your parents' choice of name, right? I would actually see it as a plus, since you'll have instant name recognition.

Hey at least your name isn't Moon Unit or Dweezil

syd625 wrote:This may be a bit of a silly question, but here it goes. I have an unusual first name (in the vein of Apple, North, and Candy) and don't know if I need to consider changing it for professional reasons, ie for hiring purposes or firm life. Do any of you have non-traditional names, or know someone who does, and, if so, how did you/they handle it? Thanks!

Makes you memorable...hopefully it doesn't sound like a stripper.

.

syd625 wrote:Someone did say it sounded vaguely stripperesque once. I'm not quite sure what my parents were thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7URSM_ShQQ

bananasplit19 wrote:

syd625 wrote:Someone did say it sounded vaguely stripperesque once. I'm not quite sure what my parents were thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7URSM_ShQQ

After watching that, I'm trying to figure out why I haven't seen that movie yet.

Just use your initials dude. Have you looked at a firm website before?

Tons of people use initials. But it's hard for us to know whether the name would be damaging without knowing what it is. "Apple" is way better than "Candy".

syd625 wrote:This may be a bit of a silly question, but here it goes. I have an unusual first name (in the vein of Apple, North, and Candy) and don't know if I need to consider changing it for professional reasons, ie for hiring purposes or firm life. Do any of you have non-traditional names, or know someone who does, and, if so, how did you/they handle it? Thanks!

I've heard of people changing African American sounding names (I believe it's known as "whitening the resume" ), due to employment discrimination.

I wouldn't think this would happen at all in biglaw, but in other industries employers will sometimes not even consider a candidate if their resume has an ethnic sounding name. Lots of studies on this. It's sad and disgusting, but a fact of life in America.

I'm not sure if there're any parallels to your case, though, but just thought I'd mention it.

syd625 wrote:Someone did say it sounded vaguely stripperesque once. I'm not quite sure what my parents were thinking.

I was going to add that my sister teaches middle school in a heavily minority-populated and relatively poor school district and she mentioned that the students' names were definitely much more different than in the previous district she worked in.

This totally sucks, but she actually said some of them had a "stereotypical" stripper feel to them (these were actual names she mentioned):

Mercedes, Lexus, Destiny, Unique, Princess, and a few others.

Personally, I wouldn't judge a person by their name (or an other superficial characteristic like race, religion, etc.), but some people do make assumptions about you. It's tough, because I would imagine that changing your name to fit someone else's preferences and preconceptions might feel like a kind of betrayal.

I don't think "Candy" isn't that bad and I've met some attorneys with that name.

I also don't think "North" is terrible unless Kanye is your father

.