Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Name that Tester!

No, no, no, not "name that tester", like the old game show where you have to identify an object or person based a series of clues ...

I mean, NAME that tester.

Here's what I mean in less ambiguous terms. I have the opportunity to change my name. On April 1, 2011, I will participate in a life changing event that will allow me to change my name. Typically, this event causes a young woman to take the name of a young man ... okay, I won't insult your intelligence. I'm getting married.

But neither I nor my soon-to-be-husband is particularly tied to our family name. Him less than me, so we don't want his last name. What this means is that we can change our last name to anything we want.

Whoa, wait a minute, anything we want? Yep, that's right. Absolutely anything we want.

We're stuck, though. The kids are less than helpful. His 4 year old daughter votes to change her middle name to Hacker and her last name to Johnson. My son is in favor of our current last name, or the name Love.

Personally, I want something clever -- with hidden meaning. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE it if I could find a way to fit the letters t-e-s-t into it, because let's face it, I'm a tester for life, and I am proud of that fact :)

If I have my way, my middle name will be NinjaMonkey.

So, here I am reaching out to my clever, geeky, techie community, and asking for name suggestions. I want to hear them all -- what would you change your last name to if you could?

11 comments:

Adam Brown said...

How about something that goes with your first name? So something like Dawn Red, or Dawn Morning?

I've always fancied the name Rockefeller or Knickerbocker!

Lisa said...

If I had good ideas for names I'd have changed mine to something better! But I applaud your creativity, I can't wait to hear the choice.

Recently a baritone named Ryan Speedo Green won the Met Opera National Council Additions Grand Finals concert. "Speedo' is his actual middle name. He was born on April 1, and his dad is quite the funnyman, and also a weight lifter, so named him after his favorite sports brand. It's memorable!

Genecyber said...

Other first names that should work well with proposed names are: Steven, Shannon, Maya, Zoey

Mohinder said...

How would you decide which one to pick if you have a long list with different types,categories and ranges of names? What's your favourite category? Do you have an algorithm that you can use to narrow it down? Any particular regional or international variations you would prefer. You must have taste for food or places that fits the criteria.If you give us a bit more of a clue may be we fit some names around it.

Joe said...

Dawn Doit

the_qa_guy said...

First of all congratulations on your engagement!

While I know that this is a sensitive matter more data might help with the decision. What's your soon-to-be husbands current last name?
Maybe there's an algorithm to determine the best possible last name starting from your current ones.

Another idea: Maybe there's a translation for "test" in a foreign language that might lead to a great lastname?
I don't know latin at all - an online dictionary tells me the translation for "test" is "experior (experiri, expertus), probatur"
Dawn Experior - that could work...

Paul said...

Hmm, I can't get little Bobby Tables out of my head. ;)

Congratulations, Dawn. Much love, happiness and joy whatever you decide.

Cheers! Paul.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dawn, I am James Shore's wife :) We chose a new last name when we got married for similar reasons to you. We looked at a lot of words, translations into Hindi, etc also. I kept a close eye on movie credits to get ideas :) We finally decided on Shore because we both were into kayaking, it played a part in how we met, and I wanted something to symbolize how we found safety/calmness with each other. We considered Eddy, Harbour, and similar words. Shore just sounded the best to us. Good luck, and congratulations!

Prince Charming said...

I would suggest "Artest" however that last name is forever immortalized to Ron Artest, the basketball player that attacked a fan.

"Fortesta" is also a good name, however that's a testosterone drug.

There also appears to be someone already named "Dawn Testa".

I wish you guys all the best.

Marlena said...

Congratulations and good on you for making the most of your name-change opportunity!

My nickname for all of us testers who blog is von TesterBlogger. If you shorten it to von Test (or von Testa) you could, as a side-effect call yourself Dawn von T. Maybe there's a tattoo in there ;)

Can't wait to see what you think up.

Unknown said...

Congratulations, Dawn!

How about "O'Matic"? Connotes automated testing and Irish vigor all in one.