Ariela and I went down to the Municipal Fortress of Justice (courthouse) this morning, and met with a judge. Why, might you ask? To get our names changed of course! Armed with our birth certificates, proof of publication affidavit, and a little coffee, we have officially, legally become Karl & Ariela Haro von Mogel.
It was quick and easy, no one decided to get up for an 8:15 court date to contest the name change, so that’s good. Funny thing, though, the judge made a momentary mistake and accidentally put ‘Ariela’ on my form, so for about 3 minutes this morning, my name was Ariela! Then it was ‘Kar’ for another minute, before the clerk fixed it and completed the name change document to read Karl Joseph Haro von Mogel.
This means several things for me now. First, it means that I can now use the name that we decided upon for legal purposes, but it also means I have to go through a few dozen name-change notices, starting with our Social Security, banks, and on down to my phone bill, paycheck, etc. Next, from here on out my blog will no longer say ‘Karl J. Mogel,’ but will instead say ‘Karl Haro von Mogel.’ I’m dropping usage of my middle initial, ‘J’ because it is not needed anymore. You see, I have a cousin whose name is Karl W. Mogel, and we’ve been using our middle initials to help people tell us apart. I’ve grown accustomed to using the J, and I know at least one person refers to me as “Karl J,” but with my totally unique surname, there’s no need to display it.
Lastly, it’s going to mean a little bit of weirdness, as some things in my life will say ‘Mogel,’ and others ‘Haro von Mogel’ during the transition phase, but that should work itself out shortly.
So from here on out, everyone’s got to use my new legal taxonomic classification, Karl Haro von Mogel, but you can just call me Karl.
The Inoculated Mind 