On Thursday 20 January 2005 6:20 pm, Chris Gianelloni wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-01-20 at 08:59 -0800, Brian Beattie wrote:
> > What is even more fun, is babies switched at birth?  Who are they.
>
> They are the names that are on their birth certificates.  The name has
> nothing to do with how they grow up and evolve.  Just because I start
> calling you George, doesn't mean you're going to start acting different.

No, you don't have to act different if I decide to call you George... but 
would you like it?

>
> > Identiy is more that who my parents were and what name was put on my
> > birth certificate, expecially when those documents can be lost or
>
> No.  It isn't.  How you act does not change your genealogy. 

And your genealogy does not determine your name or who you are.

> In fact, you heritage is the one thing you cannot possibly change, so that
> absolutely is a definite identifier of "who you are".

Except that people can change who they are...

>
> > destroyed.  My mother grew up as Judy, when she went to get a passport
> > in her late 20's, she discovered that the name on her birth certificate
> > was Elizabeth Frances XXX.  Her parents had divorced and her mother had
> > died when she was young so apperarently her Father had not liked that
> > name so he called her Judy.  Did any of that change her identiy?
>
> No.  Her name was always Elizabeth Frances.

No. Her name was and is (from the information available) Judy.

> Just like how my name is Christopher Gianelloni, but I have people call me
> Chris.  In the eyes of the law, I am Christoper. 

Or "Chris".

> If I want to start calling myself Jack, I will still be Chris until such
> time as I legally change my name. 

Common law determines that whatever you are called by is, in fact, your name. 
There is no special "legal name" property.

On Thursday 20 January 2005 6:18 pm, Jon Portnoy wrote:
> We've been here already with 'Luke-Jr' who is, apparently, only 'Luke-Jr' --
> suffice to say that you can feel free to believe you are whoever you want to
> be online

My name is Luke-Jr (splittable into first name "Luke" and last name "-Jr"; 
most identification of mine has a space in between but I choose to omit it) 
not just online, but in all uses (legal, physical-space, etc).

> right up until you decide you want to participate in Gentoo development. 

Since apparently Gentoo thinks it can define what your name is and can be.
-- 
Luke-Jr
Developer, Utopios
http://utopios.org/

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