Revisiting the Teasing Episode:

We’ve come to the conclusion that Justin might be letting some of this bother him… more than it really bothers him, as a way of bringing up the name-change topic without actually bringing it up.

See, they were also teasing him with his last name which (not to put too fine a point on it) need only drop one consonant to sound like a really good swear word. Anyway, we think he brings it up whenever anyone teases him about it as a way of mentioning-without-mentioning using the Testerman name instead.

Fitting in — not having to explain aunt/uncle — sounding like he’s ‘just our kid’.

He really likes his Rec Center ID card on which they printed is as Justin Testerman.

When asked about this, he confirmed our suspicions in that regard.

(In related news, he’s entirely dropped our names and calls us by our titles the way other kids say Mom and Dad: “Send in Aunt for my hug, please,” he says at bedtime.” Interesting development, and apparently a conscious choice on his part.)

Of course, I’m glad he wants to be more a part of the family — indistinguishable as anything other than “normal” to the outside world — and of course he’s getting to that age where everyone wants to be “normal” and still be “unique”, so I understand his needs.

HOWEVER, having a full name that easily riffs into variations like “Choice Alien Testicles”, I tried to warn him that he wouldn’t really be getting anywhere with name change, but he did have a good point:

Anyone can make fun of Faulk — with Testerman, the people teasing you will have to be a little smarter.

I guess that’s an upside.

Yeah, but his name won't be Doyce Alan... they will have to come up with something a bit different for him...

It's an interesting point. Name changes.

Stuff like that needs to be taken very seriously. Needs to be approached like it can only be done once. Huh. Sort of like a marraige. An very important decision.

He's kind of young to make such a big decision. But it might be the right move for him. It certainly sends a message that 'this is a better place...' He should try to hang on a year or so, thinking about it, to be sure it's the name he wants to carry through life.

My last name, when the original Star Wars came out (I was in jr hi) promptly became 'Wookie' - a name I bore quite happily up to high school, when it became uncool. And then my bio teacher, who told us all to call him 'bottle-washer' because that (sort of ) sounded like his name, dubbed me 'Milky Way' which was VERY uncool.. Duh. a stupid candy bar... .

oh well...
now they just call me spazz.
I wonder why?

We are approaching with caution, and have explained that at his age, requests to change names aren't likely to be taken very seriously. He sees how long it's taken for permanent guardianship papers to get filed (still working on it), even when everyone is cooperating, and from that, can guess how long custody papers would take, and files this sort of 'legal stuff' in that same category, so he knows nothing official would happen until he is at least a teen.

And I tell him he won't like me when he's a teen enough to want to use my name, but he doesn't believe me :)

For now, he has his "Justin Testerman" rec center ID, which he enjoys presenting when we go down there. He gets a kick out of spelling 'his name' for the receptionist.

Everything else will happen (or won't, c'est la vie) with time.