History Main / ShedTheFamilyName

* Dana Brody on ''{Homeland}'' changes her last name to her mother's maiden name after [[spoiler:her father is believed to be responsible for the Langley bombing]].

* The quarian race in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series doesn't have surnames but instead, spaceship names, indicating which spaceship community a quarian belongs to. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Tali'Zorah vas Neema (meaning "of ship Neema") is stripped of her quarian "surname" and renamed to "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy" (the name of the player's ship) when she is suspected of high treason and thus subject to exile. Even if she is cleared of charges, the renaming is not reversed, since her bond with Shepard and the ''Normandy'' is much greater than with any quarian ship at the time, anyway. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', she comments on the irony of "vas Normandy" being originally intended as a badge of shame but the ''Normandy'' later becoming the ship [[spoiler:that gives the quarian race their homeworld back]].

* The quarian race in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' series doesn't have surnames but instead, spaceship names, indicating which spaceship community a quarian belongs to. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Tali'Zorah vas Neema (meaning "of ship Neema") is stripped of her quarian "surname" and renamed to "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy" (the name of the player's ship) when she is suspected of high treason and thus subject to exile. Even if she is cleared of charges, the renaming is not reversed, since her bond with Shepard and the ''Normandy'' is much greater than with any quarian ship at the time, anyway. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', she comments on the irony of "vas Normandy" being originally intended as a badge of shame but the ''Normandy'' later becoming the ship [[spoiler:that gives the quarian race their homeworld back]].

Subtrope of MeaningfulRename

* ''SpiderMan'' villain [[DishingOutDirt Sandman]] was born William Baker, but uses the name Flint Marko [[DontTellMama so his mom won't find out he's a criminal]].

* Derek Harris so despised his father that he changed his entire name; he was born [[spoiler: Anthony Evelyn Armstrong Seton, Viscount Hailesham]]. The change is also [[MeaningfulRename meaningful]] since he took the name of the estate's carpenter and he prefers to work with his hands, which is is considered unsuitable for a peer's son.

* JonStewart has cited, along with an emcee's mispronunciation of his original surname, "some leftover resentment at [his] family" for his changing his surname from Leibowitz to Stewart. Indeed, Jon Stewart and his father are estranged from each other to this day.

* Inverted amongst sexual minorities or defectors of tightly-knit religious groups. Sometimes parents ''force'' the children to assume a different family name to make sure they no more have to deal with children who have brought shame upon them by being deviant and who have defamed the family name. A subtrope of HonorBeforeReason trope, and may act as substitute for [[HonorRelatedAbuse honor killing]].

This can be done in a variety of forms. In cases where this issue comes up in TheMaidenNameDebate, a much bigger deal will be made over a man deciding to change his name as part of the marriage than it would if a woman were to do the same due to the fact that a woman is usually expected to change her name in any case. And speaking of maiden names, a common practice among characters who do this is to take their mother's maiden name (or other equivalent) after renouncing the surname they got from their father. Others still will take an entirely different name or give themselves an AwesomeMcCoolname. In rare cases, the person renaming themselves will decide to go around with OnlyOneName.

* NathanielHawthorne wrote a lot about Puritans, and almost never portrayed that society as a whole sympathetically. He was the descendant of a judge involved in [[BurnTheWitch the Salem Witch Trials]], and he hated that. So he changed his last name from "Hathorne" to "Hawthorne."

* Throughout the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, Lord Voldemort, né Tom Marvolo Riddle, repeatedly disparages the given and last names that he got from his [[FantasticRacism filthy Mudblood]] father. [[DoNotCallMePaul People calling him by his first and last names]] is a major BerserkButton for him, unsurprisingly.

* In ''Literature/AnnoDracula'', the undead Creator/EdgarAllanPoe dubs himself simply "Edgar Poe", because the middle name is tied to his hated foster father.

* In ''AnnoDracula'', the undead EdgarAllanPoe dubs himself simply "Edgar Poe", because the middle name is tied to his hated foster father.

* ''Manga/Oishinbo'': The male lead holds his InsufferableGenius father responsible for the death of his mother, so uses her family name instead of his father's.

* ''OiShinbo'': The male lead holds his InsufferableGenius father responsible for the death of his mother, so uses her family name instead of his father's.
* ''TegamiBachi'': Largo takes his mother maiden name of Lloyd [[spoiler:after leaving Kagerou]]

* In ''YTheLastMan'', Dr. Mann took her name from Mann's Chinese Theatre to spite her father (to be fair he was a jerk and [[spoiler: accidentally caused the [[LadyLand gendercide]] in the process of sabotaging her work]]).

* ''TheCountOfMonteCristo'': Villefort, a Royalist, changed his name to disassociate himself from his Bonapartist father, Noirtier.
* Jenna, one of the protagonists of ''WhenDadKilledMom'', asks Karen at the end if she can be Melissa Pierce specifically because she doesn't want [[DeadGuyJunior her dead half-sister's given name]] or her dad's surname.
* Throughout the HarryPotter series, Lord Voldemort, né Tom Marvolo Riddle, repeatedly disparages the given and last names that he got from his [[FantasticRacism filthy Mudblood]] father. [[DoNotCallMePaul People calling him by his first and last names]] is a major BerserkButton for him, unsurprisingly.

* Jon Cade, the protagonist from the series ''The Man of Jerusalem'' changed his surname to Shannow to distance himself from his brother Daniel Cade, a notorious criminal.

* Paul Stenbeck from ''AsTheWorldTurns'' changed his last name to Ryan (his Mom's maiden name) to distance himself from his villianous father James.

* SomethingPositive's Jason takes Audrey's name when they get married because he hates his father.

* Lisa takes her mothers maiden name in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' after Homer bets against her in a crossword puzzle competition.

* After OscarWilde was convicted for "gross indecency", his wife did this on their sons' behalf. She not only changed her and her sons' surname to Holland, a name from her own heritage, to disassociate them from Wilde, but she and her family did everything possible to ensure that Wilde never saw his sons again, even after he got out of prison.

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* JonStewart has cited, along with an emcee's mispronunciation of his original surname, "some leftover resentment at [his] family" for his changing his surname from Leibowitz to Stewart. Indeed, Jon Stewart and his father are estranged from each other to this day.

!!Examples:

* William Patrick Stuart-Houston was born William Patrick Hitler. He was the son of Alois Hitler, Jr. and a nephew of AdolfHitler himself. Yeah, you can guess why he changed his name.