> funny ideas about spelling and capitalization, including his own name, DJ Delorie (not "D. J." or the like)

If you read his about page, "DJ" is his legal name, as-is, with no spaces. It's not an initialism or abbreviation for something else.

Regardless, it's a little weird to criticize someone for how they spell their name. By definition, their name is spelled how they want it. It's a core component of identity.

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skissane a day ago | parent | next [-]

> If you read his about page, "DJ" is his legal name, as-is, with no spaces. It's not an initialism or abbreviation for something else.

Not that it is really any of my business, but I wonder if that's always been his legal name, or if he changed it at some point. I can see how if someone is used to going by their initials, they might eventually decide it is more of their real name than their legal name is, and hence change their legal name to match their real one. Conversely, maybe that's actually the name his parents gave him.

OTOH, my mother's real name (what her family and friends call her) and her legal name have always been different. I asked her once if she ever thought of changing it, she told me she's lived her whole life with them being different – she's in her late 70s now – and doesn't see the point of trying to officially align them, the work involved would outweigh any benefit to her

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djdelorie 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My name has always been DJ. I made it legal as soon as I was old enough to (yes, it was worth the effort). It's not initials. You don't need to know more ;-)

Yes, the capitalization is not normal, and yes, it causes problems (and occasionally, entertainment). Yes, my login is "dj". DJGPP's capitalization follows it (DJGPP/djgpp but not Djgpp). It does tend to weed out people and systems that make invalid assumptions about personal names.

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kelnos 20 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the work involved would outweigh any benefit to her

Yeah, name changes can be a pain in the ass. Not just the name change itself (which, depending on jurisdiction, might actually be fairly simple), but in updating anything else in your life (like perhaps a bank or brokerage account, or real property title) to reflect your new name, not to mention any process that requires you to link your birth certificate or other pre-name-change document to your current identity.

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bitwize a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut, was legally Edwin Aldrin up until the 2010s or so, when he was in his 80s. People had been calling him Buzz for decades, so I guess he figured why not.

Unrelated fact about Aldrin: his mother's maiden name was Moon. Bit of nominative determinism by proxy there.

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kelnos 20 hours ago | parent | next [-]

According to Wikipedia, he changed is name in 1988, at age 58. So I guess he changed his name in the 80s, not his 80s. Still fairly late in life to change your name, though!

(And "Buzz" came from one of his sisters misprounouncing "brother" as "buzzer". What a cute origin!)

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skissane a day ago | parent | prev [-]

My mother's situation is complicated by being a dual citizen – she'd have to update all her paperwork with the governments of two separate countries.

I am also a dual citizen, so would have the same issue – except unlike my mother, I can't think of any plausible reason why I might want to change my legal name.

	▲	bitwize 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's totally understandable why your mother would come to her decision, even without that aspect but especially with. I just found it interesting that someone else chose otherwise, at an even older age than your mother.

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exmadscientist a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> It's not an initialism or abbreviation for something else.

And even apart from that and the common law right of name, it's not unusual in America to contract two-initial names like that into a single "word". Not extremely common, but not novel or particularly remarkable either.