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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   2038 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 31, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Ivan is apparently the parallel to John, and is very close to Ian. You could just swap to the closest parallel. Might not even need to bother changing it legally. I know a Bangladeshi guy who just goes by [English name that sounds very close to his Bangladeshi name]. He's in the same boat as you, fully assimilated second-generation.

While my name is only semi-common in Russia, the English cognate is actually one of the most generic names in existence, so I figure if I'm going to change my name, I might as well make it something a tad more colorful.

If I were in your position I'd just anglicize your Russian given name, it's the kind of thing people have done for hundreds of years and won't make people look twice. My own name is of Anglophone origin and doesn't translate into other European languages, I've always been jealous of people who could do this so easily.

Well I'd still retain my surname. The issue is that my name translated into English is one of the most common Anglophone names in existence, up there with James, Michael, David, and John.

Your thought process kind of sounds like all the trans people who end up calling themselves some stripper name like Lola or Lilith or Brayden.

That’s good. Never pick a name you can’t scrub the floor in, and never pick a name that makes you look like a try-hard. If after a year you decide that the anglicisation isn’t enough, then change.

As a metaphor take cosmetic surgery - one should always get somebody else to decide the procedure or one just ends up with a face structured around your insecurities.

I'm guessing it's Matvei/Matthew or something like that, not a bad name. Our most common names aren't nearly as high-frequency as the most common names in Russian, I don't think it's terrible to have a common name unless you really don't like it for some other reason.

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