Next Week I’ll Have A New Identity

The auction to buy my last name for 2014 ends December 12 at midnight

Aside from brides getting married, there aren’t many people who have a planned identity change. So I guess in some respects, I’m one of the few men of the world who currently know what it feels like to be a bride. Well… Maybe not.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about, let me catch you up to speed. I launched a crazy website last year called BuyMyLastName.com. The idea for the site came about after my parents went through an unfortunate divorce. I wrote another piece with more details about that here.

The website pretty thoroughly explains what the winning bidder will get when the auction for my last name ends. My name will change across all my social media accounts. I’ll legally change it on my driver’s license and social security card. All my credit cards will be updated. It’ll be featured on the cover of my upcoming book. It changes everywhere. What I get from the auction, besides the money, is a new identity for 2014. And that’s honestly how I look at this whole thing. In a way, it’s a new start.

For lack of a better phrase, my previous name is dead to me. There are friends, acquaintances, businesses, and plenty more people who think I’m still “Jason Sadler.” I’m not. Does it offend me if people still call me by my old last name? Heck no, not in the slightest. But, that name doesn’t exist for me anymore. At the moment I’m Jason Headsetsdotcom, and after December 12 when the final auction to buy my last name ends, I’ll be Jason ___________.

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t weird. It absolutely is. But unlike most people, my last name has never carried any value in my life. What does carry value are the memories I’ve created while having these last names. Each different name has had some significance for different points in my life. While running my other company IWearYourShirt, I was more widely known as “the t-shirt guy” than “Jason Sadler.” I know that purely from Google Analytics and the search terms that brought millions of visitors to that website from 2009 to now. That’s never bothered me at all because, again, my last name has never been the thing that’s defined me.

In hindsight, I should have “lost” my old licenses so I would have had them forever. At least I took photos of them!

Who I am as a person isn’t defined by the letters that come after my first name. Maybe that will be different in 2015 when I change my last name to one I found in my family tree. I’m not sure. That name might just be another stepping stone for me. Luckily my dog doesn’t care what his last name is and my girlfriend is a very patient and accepting person of the weird things I do.

For the next seven days I wait in anticipation. The next iteration of my identity is somewhat out of my hands and I’m okay with that (although I do have first right of refusal to reject any inappropriate last name bids). I, like all of you reading this, have no clue what name will end up on my credit cards, driver’s license, etc. All I know is that it’s going to be another year with another crazy last name!