Say hi to Oliver Radwell
My name is changing from “Omer Karadagli” to “Oliver Radwell”. This is a big change for me. This blog post explains the why and the how.
History
The name I have on my birth certificate is “Ömer Can Karadağlı”.
“Ömer” was the name of the father of my father. See wikipedia article on the name Omar for its pronunciation and origin.
My middle name “Can” was suggested to my parents by my sister to avoid confusion between 2 of my cousins named “Ömer Karadağlı”. See wikipedia article on the name Can for its pronunciation and origin.
Fun fact: Although “Can” is my middle name all my relatives call me “Ömer Can” except for my dad who calls me just “Ömer”.
My surname “Karadağlı” means “from Montenegro”. It was a nickname given to my great grandfather because he was an Ottoman messenger in Montenegro possibly in Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1876–78).
Long before I moved to the UK, I had already started to use a version of my name without the Turkish characters when I sign up to websites. I was using “Omer Can Karadagli”. When I moved to the UK I removed my middle and changed it to “Omer Karadagli”.
Why am I changing my name?
Difficult to pronounce and spell
Main reason is most of the people I meet are not able to pronounce my name properly. I keep getting asked to spell my full name on the phone. On multiple occasions my name was misspelt.
Religious origins of the name
Because of the religious origins of my first name, people assume I am religious. Being an atheist I don’t like when people associate me with a religion.
Why “Oliver Radwell”?
- No one has it on the web (Good for SEO)
- Easy to pronounce and spell
- First name starts with an ‘O’ ends with ‘er’, sounding similar to ‘Omer’
- Regular but not so common
How am I changing my name?
I will first start by using it unofficially everywhere I can. I will exclusively use “Oliver Radwell” as my name on all social networks. On social networks that allow other names (Facebook, Google+, etc.) I will put “Ömer Can Karadağlı” as my birth name. My official identity will not change until I get a British citizenship.
After becoming a British citizen I will change my name by deed pool (see: Change your name by deed poll) which will only affect my British identity.
My Cypriot identity will stay with my birth name.
End words
I am pretty sure there will be people annoyed by this. So I do apologise. Please understand that I would not change my name if I did not think it was necessary. Remember that it is going to be harder for me to change my name than it is going to be for you to get used to it.