I'm back, I didn't answer before because I lost track of the thread.
I think that there are a few issues that it was rejected. I think I would have fared better if I had more thorough background information about why I wanted the change. I followed a name change book and sources on line, and they all seemed to say it was easy, and if there was no obscenity, attempt to use a new name to defraud or escape debt, then almost any name you could come up with should go through.
Going by that, I tried to keep my petition really simple and didn't attach a lot of background to it, just that I liked the new name, it fit me better, that my friends knew me as Boomer The Dog, and I was inspired by my dad changing his name.
Now I realize that it's easy for regular name changes, like if you change from Joe to Bob, or going to a female type name to male name for example, but it doesn't seem to apply to what they'd consider an unusual name change, so my case was held over for a special evidentiary hearing, and I had to testify.
Another thing is that Pennsylvania seems to be a tough state for unusual name changes, they don't have a good history of allowing them. It must be so unheard of that they didn't seem to know what to make of it when I went to give my petition to the court clerk. He had a laugh about it as to be expected, but I was also was warned that the court might see the name as inappropriate, and that the judge might not grant my petition.
The clerk even suggested that I could change it, going with 'Boomer' only and leaving off 'The Dog', and gave an example of an unusual name, 'What if someone came in and wanted to name themselves Joe Pittsburgh, do you think we should grant it?' I barked that I didn't think that would be a bad thing.
The problem with going for another name is that I'm really Boomer The Dog and have been for such a long time that it's my established identity, and I couldn't see having a different name.
I can see a cloudy side of things if I let my mind wonder, like Pittsburgh isn't being as friendly to Furries, while Anthrocon, a convention for Furries, is based here.
Pittsburgh is a city that's losing population to other areas, and they could use some cool new people here. Even if most Furries wouldn't want to change their names, Pittsburgh at least looks more friendly to animal people if they could, I think.
If you have any ideas from your experience of filing for the name change, those might help others, especially if you have a blog where you've been writing about it.
It was great to see you and your family on the show, and how you guys are dealing with it, I liked what Logo did there.
I'm back, I didn't answer before because I lost track of the thread.
I think that there are a few issues that it was rejected. I think I would have fared better if I had more thorough background information about why I wanted the change. I followed a name change book and sources on line, and they all seemed to say it was easy, and if there was no obscenity, attempt to use a new name to defraud or escape debt, then almost any name you could come up with should go through.
Going by that, I tried to keep my petition really simple and didn't attach a lot of background to it, just that I liked the new name, it fit me better, that my friends knew me as Boomer The Dog, and I was inspired by my dad changing his name.
Now I realize that it's easy for regular name changes, like if you change from Joe to Bob, or going to a female type name to male name for example, but it doesn't seem to apply to what they'd consider an unusual name change, so my case was held over for a special evidentiary hearing, and I had to testify.
Another thing is that Pennsylvania seems to be a tough state for unusual name changes, they don't have a good history of allowing them. It must be so unheard of that they didn't seem to know what to make of it when I went to give my petition to the court clerk. He had a laugh about it as to be expected, but I was also was warned that the court might see the name as inappropriate, and that the judge might not grant my petition.
The clerk even suggested that I could change it, going with 'Boomer' only and leaving off 'The Dog', and gave an example of an unusual name, 'What if someone came in and wanted to name themselves Joe Pittsburgh, do you think we should grant it?' I barked that I didn't think that would be a bad thing.
The problem with going for another name is that I'm really Boomer The Dog and have been for such a long time that it's my established identity, and I couldn't see having a different name.
I can see a cloudy side of things if I let my mind wonder, like Pittsburgh isn't being as friendly to Furries, while Anthrocon, a convention for Furries, is based here.
Pittsburgh is a city that's losing population to other areas, and they could use some cool new people here. Even if most Furries wouldn't want to change their names, Pittsburgh at least looks more friendly to animal people if they could, I think.
If you have any ideas from your experience of filing for the name change, those might help others, especially if you have a blog where you've been writing about it.
It was great to see you and your family on the show, and how you guys are dealing with it, I liked what Logo did there.
Boomer
http://boomerthedog.net The shortest version of my Doggie info.