英语课程计划-Get A Different Name Day（在线收听）

Do you like your name? Have you ever thought about changing it? Well, on Get A Different Name Day you can. This special day always falls on February 13th. They say the day is: “For the pity of millions of us who hate our birth names. On this day we may change our names to whatever we wish and have the right to expect colleagues, family and friends to so address us.” They have a point. We did not choose our names. Our parents made that decision. Maybe most of us would change our name if we could. The trouble is, if we don’t like our name, we are stuck with it for many years as we grow up. But all is not lost. You can have it legally changed.

Most of us have a given name and some of us have a middle name. One of the biggest influences on our given names is family tradition. Our parents wanted to name us after a fondly-remembered aunt or a grandparent. Another huge influence is popular culture. There are a lot more Brads and Kylies in the world today because of the actor Brad Pitt and singer Kylie Minogue. Lots of people do change their name. There are many reasons for this. Actors want a better-sounding name; people who change religions also commonly change names; people who enter witness protection programmes change their names for security reasons. American actor Rob Morrow called his daughter Tu. Would you change your name if you were Tu Morrow?