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I am a senior undergraduate about to publish my first academic paper, and have been thinking about taking an academic pseudonym to make myself easier to identify.

My full name is shared by at least three famous people (including one celebrity and one international athlete), and at least two people inside academia (one of whom works in my field). This is my major reason for wanting to change. In modern academia, it seems online identity/SEO is becoming increasingly important, and I don't want to have to compete for namespace with other people, who are:

1. more famous than I'll likely ever be; and


2. already have established careers and goodwill under that name.

Basically, it seems like it could be a real hindrance when trying to get my career off the ground.

I am quite attached to my first name, so I'm thinking about changing my last name only to an ancient variant of it. It's a similar name, but much less common, and it couldn't be mistaken as a misspelling of my real name (think Busher vs Bouchier, or Lombard vs Lambert). I can't find evidence of anyone online using that name, so it seems to solve all the problems mentioned above.

I hope to continue into academia and become a professor, in which case I would publish and be known professionally under the new name.
I'd rather not legally change my name, or have to change my name within my personal life, so it would be a situation of having separate professional and personal names. In the event I don't succeed/continue into academia, I could always just revert to my real name (unlikely that my published work will be relevant anyhow).

I'd like to get advice from you all, especially those of you that use a pseudonym in your academic work. A couple questions I have:

1. Does this seem like a worthwhile idea?


2. Could there be any issues with having different legal and professional names in a university IT system?


3. Should I change my undergrad enrolment to be under my new academic name? How about when applying to postgrad/PhD programs?


4. If I don't do (3), could/should I get degrees reprinted (once I have an established career) under my academic name, rather than my personal name?


5. Are there any hairy issues that could arise from this, which I might not have considered?

Thanks!

If you have a middle name, then you could add a hyphen to derive a new name, e.g., Alpha Bravo Charlie could become Alpha Bravo-Charlie.

Does this seem like a worthwhile idea?

Yes

Could there be any issues with having different legal and professional names in a university IT system?

Yes, but this will vary university to university. An obvious problem might be the assignment of email addresses, e.g., Alpha.Bravo@university.edu, but this can be resolved by a polite email.

Should I change my undergrad enrolment to be under my new academic name?

This mightn't be possible, you'd need to justify (perhaps legally) a reason (which you cannot legally prove).

How about when applying to postgrad/PhD programs?

You need to be careful: Don't commit fraud. Being employed under a non-legal name is possibly illegal, publishing under a non-legal name is not.

could/should I get degrees reprinted (once I have an established career) under my academic name, rather than my personal name?

Some institutes may question a certificate in the "wrong" name, others won't, many won't check.

Are there any hairy issues that could arise from this, which I might not have considered?

You might inadvertently commit fraud...

EDIT: I had assumed a full name clash (that's what the OP wrote). If there's merely a partial name clash, e.g., Alpha Charlie, and the OP has a middle name, then I suggest that the OP simply uses their full name, e.g., Alpha Bravo Charlie, as their name, that is, they always use their full name and they don't drop their middle name.

Complementary to your own suggestions and the ones in the other answers, you could consider creating an ORCID (or of course any other unique researcher/author ID) and using it in all publications. The benefits here:

• By adding a unique identifier to your name, the name collisions can be resolved.


• If your change your name at a certain point (e.g., if you decide to change your name as you suggested in the question), the ID will remain the same. Therefore, you even might be able to postpone the decision whether to change your name.


• Since you mention online identity and SEO: At least ORCID comes with a profile web site (I am not familiar with other ID systems), where you can add your personal information and even maintain a list of your publications. Usually, a link to this profile is added to the publication, so readers can follow it. As to search engine optimization, I am not expert here but I would guess that the outcome of those algorithms improves if there is a unique ID that groups your contributions together.

Of course, all those ID systems are quite recent and might not be accepted (yet) by the journals and/or researchers in your field. Nevertheless, I would give it a try since it comes at no cost (which I presume won't be the case for changing legal documents).

A former colleague has effectively swapped their middle and family names for publishing purposes (I believe their given middle name is also in some way inherited). The now surname is (for native English-speakers) simpler and more natural to spell and pronounce than the legal one, and they use the initial of the legal surname as a middle initial. The new name is simultaneously academically unique and intuitive for people from many cultures (working in English).

Applying this to Dorothy Hodgkin as an example would give Dorothy H.Crowfoot.

This is a slightly bigger change than the one you propose, and so far seems to work well.

These kinds of variants are very common with first and middle names, but I've never seen it with a last name. For example someone with legal name Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson might easily publish under:

• Charles Dodgeson


• Charles L. Dodgeson


• Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson


• C. Lutwidge Dodgeson


• C. L. Dodgeson (I don't know anyone who does this, but it would probably be fine)


• Chase Dodgeson (in the case where the person goes by Chase)


• Lutwidge Dodgeson (in the case where the person goes by their middle name)


• Chase L. Dodgeson


• C. Larry Dodgeson


• ...

Maybe such a variant works for you. But normally, changes from First Middle Last are toward how one introduces oneself in conversation, not away.

As others have said, regardless of how you publish, IT systems and degrees will always contain your legal name. Having these be different is normal and fine as in the "Chase Dodgeson" example. The main sources of friction I see would be

1. When applying for jobs, it can confuse people or possibly someone will disbelieve these are your publications (although if they are listed on your website which contains both your legal name and pseudonym, hopefully it's okay).




2. People may be confused when meeting you in person or hearing about you third-hand, then they go to look for your publications. Every such interaction now needs some additional explanation, or maybe just a good explanatory sentence prominently on your website.

If you keep your last name unchanged, both of these are much easier or not existent at all. I think the difficulties are surmountable, but I'd definitely consider all your other options first. One is to legally change your middle name and use a variant with the middle initial or the full middle name.