Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant. We're here for you.
Speaker 1: How you doing, Chuck? I'm doing well, Josh. I'm doing
Speaker 1: pretty good. To Chuck, I drank a vault on an
Speaker 1: empty stomach. I'm about that. You cover off this microphone.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go. You got another one lined up?
Speaker 1: I do? I do? This is my second one, right,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what that is. I'm about to
Speaker 1: pass out, actually, but I'll try to make it through. Yeah,
Speaker 1: please don't. I can't carry this. So I've got a
Speaker 1: great news item for you. Ready, Okay. So it turns
Speaker 1: out the sovereign Nation of New Zealand actually enforces its
Speaker 1: law that you can't give a child the name over
Speaker 1: a hundred characters long, and you can't give a child
Speaker 1: a name that could prove socially handicapping. You want to
Speaker 1: you want to hear an example? Charles Manson, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: And arguably I like it. I think it's very lilting
Speaker 1: and sweet, but it's arguably worse than Charles Mason. There's
Speaker 1: an a year old girl who was in the midst
Speaker 1: of a custody battle with her parents, and the judge
Speaker 1: found out what the girl's name was and how much
Speaker 1: she hated it, and actually made her a temporary ward
Speaker 1: of the Corps so she could legally change her name herself.
Speaker 1: Tallula does the hula from Hawaii? I'm not kidding. Is
Speaker 1: that two names? One name? No, that's her first name,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's separate words. Um, and I think
Speaker 1: they actually even spelled it correctly, like the is not capitalized,
Speaker 1: that kind of things. But I was reading this BBC
Speaker 1: article on it, and um. They brought up some other
Speaker 1: examples of names in New Zealand that some made it
Speaker 1: through and some didn't. There are a couple bizarre ones
Speaker 1: that made it through, like number sixteen bus Shelter bus shelter, Yes, um.
Speaker 1: And another one that made it through is Midnight Chardonnay,
Speaker 1: which I think Q Grant probably has designs on that
Speaker 1: poor child. Yeah, I think it's no secret how that
Speaker 1: child was conceived exactly. But are a few more, um
Speaker 1: that didn't make it through, like Yeah, Detroit, sex fruit
Speaker 1: and um the twins, Fish and Chips. Uh, the the
Speaker 1: the the federal government or maybe even local government moved
Speaker 1: to block those names. Really, but um, I'm curious though.
Speaker 1: It is Charles W. Bryan. Is that the name your
Speaker 1: parents gave you? Did you change it? No, Charles Wayne.
Speaker 1: I was named after John Wayne, which is a true story,
Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah? I didn't know what the W
Speaker 1: stands for. Yeah, I'm Wayne, now I do. Well, if
Speaker 1: you have your original name, you know anything about this
Speaker 1: kind of thing? Is this in your field of expertise? Perchance? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, my wife actually changed the spelling of her
Speaker 1: first name, although not legally, but uh, well, she spells it,
Speaker 1: you know, when she fills out her driver's license records
Speaker 1: and on her bank account, it's all spelled the Emily
Speaker 1: with an i e and not Emily with a y.
Speaker 1: But she never legally got it changed. But it just
Speaker 1: kind of goes to show how you can change these
Speaker 1: official documents without really having the court say you can, yeah,
Speaker 1: just by saying precedent right exactly. But there are legal
Speaker 1: routes to do this kind of thing, right right, And
Speaker 1: I think I know what you're getting to, yes, Chuck,
Speaker 1: How could one erase their identity and start over. That's
Speaker 1: a great question. Um. Unfortunately, I hate to spoil this
Speaker 1: for the listeners, but there's really no way that you
Speaker 1: can completely erase your identity, uh in this day and age, um,
Speaker 1: at least in the United States without the government doing
Speaker 1: it for you. Yeah. Technology has made it a lot
Speaker 1: more difficult to commit just about any kind of crime. Huh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In the old days you could do there was one
Speaker 1: thing called a paper trip, which is you could assume
Speaker 1: the identity of like a dead infant and um, get
Speaker 1: their records and claim their identity as your own. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can't do that anymore though, because you
Speaker 1: know computer records nowadays and everything it's it makes it
Speaker 1: really difficult to completely erase your identity. So I guess
Speaker 1: even if you do change your identity, there's still records
Speaker 1: of your former identity linking the two together exactly. So
Speaker 1: if you're on the run from somebody like you can
Speaker 1: change your name uh pretty easily if you're if you
Speaker 1: have special circumstances, you can change your Social Security number,
Speaker 1: but you have to prove to the government that someone's
Speaker 1: either been misusing yours and another reason you can change
Speaker 1: your social uh is, if you're a victim of domestic
Speaker 1: violence and you really need to, you know, go underground
Speaker 1: where your ex husband or ex wife. I guess if
Speaker 1: you know your victim of spousal abuse as a husband,
Speaker 1: which is actually um not paid nearly enough attention to
Speaker 1: husband abuse. I'm not kidding. It actually is a real problem.
Speaker 1: Men don't feel uh the least bit confident in admitting
Speaker 1: that they are abused by their wives. They're not gonna
Speaker 1: tell you. It's out there, you know. Sure, well that's
Speaker 1: a podcast for another day. Sure, well, let's do it.
Speaker 1: We'll put it on a calendar. Agreed. So, uh, Like
Speaker 1: I said, you can change your social for several reasons.
Speaker 1: It needs to be approved. You can change your name.
Speaker 1: It depends what state you live in, uh, for the
Speaker 1: uh the process you go through, but it generally costs,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty bucks or under. And a judge actually rules.
Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting whether or not you can
Speaker 1: change your name. Well, that's only if there's objections. Right, Well,
Speaker 1: they make a ruling regardless and it's always yes unless
Speaker 1: there's an objection. Okay, So you basically to change your name,
Speaker 1: you have to advertise it in the in the legal
Speaker 1: organ that usually the county newspaper. And this is for
Speaker 1: the great state of Georgia that we leven. Ok Um,
Speaker 1: So it does that for several weeks. And you know
Speaker 1: if if somebody notices and they have an objection, they
Speaker 1: can object. And I actually um know of an instance
Speaker 1: where that happened. You remember Jeff Killooley, Oh who doesn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so apparently kneecapping America's sweetheart, um is, he can get
Speaker 1: you some really bad press in this country, right because
Speaker 1: here he famously uh hit Nancy Kerrigan, ice skater, Nancy
Speaker 1: Carrigan and the knees with a crow bar. Yeah on
Speaker 1: on behalf he said, he claimed of his wife Tanya Harding,
Speaker 1: who was in competition for Karagan for you know, America's sweetheart,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Um. So after the whole thing
Speaker 1: dies down. Um, A couple of years after Galilee petitions
Speaker 1: to have his name changed to Jeff Stone. There were
Speaker 1: plenty of Jeff Stones that for that lodged formal objections,
Speaker 1: including oddly enough, I heard the guy who played Jeff
Speaker 1: Stone the son on the Donna Reed television show from
Speaker 1: the sixties. Isn't that weird? Yeah? So people do object,
Speaker 1: but I think you have to be um a little
Speaker 1: unsavory for somebody not want you to share their name.
Speaker 1: And I would think Galilee would have changed his name
Speaker 1: before that, just for the simple fact that his name
Speaker 1: was Galule, right exactly. Yeah, that's just me. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: those you've you've given us a couple of good reasons.
Speaker 1: Can you give us any famous cases of of people
Speaker 1: changing their identities? I can, Well, let's hear it. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a really recent one. Radovan credits Um the Serbian
Speaker 1: leader from Bosnia Herzegovina. Right. Yeah, back in the Balkan Wars,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ethnic cleansing going on. Um and
Speaker 1: Ratti was one of the ones who was committing genocide
Speaker 1: against the Muslims in that area. Uh So the war's end, uh,
Speaker 1: the u S indictes him for crimes against humanity, he
Speaker 1: drops out. Apparently he was still something of a hero
Speaker 1: to the Serbian population around there. He was hiding in
Speaker 1: plain sight to an extent. He actually grew a beard
Speaker 1: and became a an alternative health guru and was living
Speaker 1: quite publicly in Belgrade. Finally, we get a very pro
Speaker 1: pro American, pro West leader uh in in that area
Speaker 1: and um like the next month ravages under arrest and
Speaker 1: on trial. So war crimes is a pretty good reason
Speaker 1: to change your identity as well. Yeah, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: when I was researching this article, I found that a
Speaker 1: lot of people that enquire about this on the internet,
Speaker 1: you know, you can get certain websites will say they'll
Speaker 1: change your name, but it's really just a big scam.
Speaker 1: They'll give you a fake idea and or reuse a
Speaker 1: bunch of the same records over and over. And it's
Speaker 1: really for those of you out there that look and
Speaker 1: these is just a big money rip off. That's one
Speaker 1: of those things where if you want it done right,
Speaker 1: you have to do it yourself, I would imagine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, especially if you're having trouble with your identity
Speaker 1: through identity theft or whatever. But I guess if your
Speaker 1: identity gets so ragged out, it doesn't matter who you
Speaker 1: trust it to to change it for you. But I
Speaker 1: wonder if the if the percentage of people changing their
Speaker 1: identity is on the rise, what with identity theft just
Speaker 1: exploding all over the place. Yeah, I think, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's one of the problems that the Internet is identity theft,
Speaker 1: and it's also one of the problems of people not
Speaker 1: being able to change their identity because of the paper
Speaker 1: trail via computer, So it's sort of a double edged sword.
Speaker 1: So check you want to give our listeners the number
Speaker 1: they can call if they're interested in changing their Social
Speaker 1: Security number. Yeah, if you're a victim of spousal abuse
Speaker 1: or um. If you're you know social Security number has
Speaker 1: been tampered with, can call one eight hundred seven seven
Speaker 1: to twelve thirteen to inquire to the s s A
Speaker 1: about you know what you can do and for all
Speaker 1: the great details you can read Chuck's our coal how
Speaker 1: can I erase my identity? And start over on how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com and stick around to find out
Speaker 1: what article makes Chuck think of Frankenstein. Right after this,
Speaker 1: we're back. Thanks for hanging around. I don't blame you.
Speaker 1: What article is it, Chuck? Well, it's sort of misleading.
Speaker 1: It's not Frankenstein, the doctor who created the monster, but
Speaker 1: it's the awesome seventies instrumental groovy song Frankenstein. D D dude,
Speaker 1: ain't d we have to pay anybody? I don't think
Speaker 1: so okay to anyone? It would be Johnny Winner because
Speaker 1: that's his song. And uh, you can ask me why. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is kind of you. Not only did we start,
Speaker 1: you misled me to mislead the readers. And now I'm
Speaker 1: just as confused as ever. Why would that possibly remind
Speaker 1: me of frankenst Like, what article are you talking about? Well,
Speaker 1: because Johnny Winner famously is has albinism along with his brother,
Speaker 1: fellow musician Edgar Winner Afar Winner Group, they're both albinos.
Speaker 1: Currently it runs in the family. So the article how
Speaker 1: albinism works is that's the one said you just sit
Speaker 1: there and Frankenstein plays over and over in your head.
Speaker 1: Every time you're in over and over, I get the
Speaker 1: ear worm. Well that's fantastic, Chuck. So you can read
Speaker 1: all about albionism and all sorts of other interesting articles
Speaker 1: on how stuff works dot Com. Check it out for
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it
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