Should I change my name?
I’m Italian (and living in Italy). I’ve written my two first screenplays in Italian, basically ’cause they were college assignments, but my true goal is to have a career in the U.S.
My English is pretty good, so that’s not the problem. According to my teacher, the problem is gonna be my name. My name is Pierluigi Bellini. He says that with my way-too-Italian-to-be-understood name there’s no way someone’s gonna read my screenplays outside Italy (or Europe).
Is that really that important? Should I change my real name for a nickname? He suggests that if I wanna get my scripts read in US I should at least sign them as “written by PJ Bellini.” It sounds really stupid to me to change my name ’cause of that, but he says that it’s a pretty common thing for foreign writers. What do you think ’bout that?
– Pierluigi Bellini
Rome, Italy
As a writer who legally changed his difficult-to-pronounce German name to the calendrical moniker August, I gotta say your teacher is right.
(I can’t just throw out that bombshell without answering the obvious question: my family name is “Meise.” In German, you’d pronounce it MY-zuh. My family pronounced it MY-zee. But for my entire life, every stranger, every restaurant hostess, every telephone salesperson has pronounced it Meez (or occasionally, MEE-see). And I can’t blame them. It’s a name that doesn’t particularly announce its ethnicity, or give you any clue what to do with it. I didn’t envy another 70 years of correcting how people pronounced my name — it’s a terrible first 15 seconds of conversation — so I legally swapped it for my father’s middle name before moving to Los Angeles. The last time I heard myself called “John Meez” was when the court clerk called my case before the judge.)
You’re in a much better spot, my Italian friend. There’s no need for you to legally change your name. If I were you, I’d just trim off the “luigi” part when you write professionally. “Pier Bellini” is an awesome writer’s name. It sounds like an apéritif you’d be offered on a yacht in Cannes.
Five years from now, when you have a movie in theaters, we’ll see your name and remember you wrote in to the site. That’s the mark of a cool name.
Articles
November 15th, 2007 at 8:24 am
John, I didn’t know your name was German. Meise means tomtit. But in Germany it also expresses a swearword… the English saying is “He’s off his chump.” which is “Er hat eine Meise” (or poorly translated “He’s got a tomtit.”) in Germany. End of lesson.
Your example reminds me of the story how Dirk Benedict changed his German name from “Niewoehner” into Benedict.
Honestly, I find it’s a shame that we have to change our names to fit into Hollywood’s needs. I mean, a name is something that indentifies us and is part of our family. Wouldn’t we betray our own family in a way by changing our name?
And by the way, I find Perluigi is a beautiful name. There are worse cases in Hollywood and they haven’t even changed their names.
So I assume I’d have to change my last name, too, huh? Although “Ziolkowski” is a quite famous name in the USA and Russia, I guess it wouldn’t fit into “Wonderland”.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Pier Bellini sounds nice and easily pronounceable =) Good luck with your name and career Mr.Bellini!
I’ve been thinking about the same subject for quite some time as I’m also aiming to establish myself as a writer/director in Hollywoodland (I’m currently living in Sweden). My guess is that most people would have a hard time pronouncing “Andreas Climent” (pronounced Climént, not ClÃment like most assume) but I don’t really want to change my name completely just to fit in.
In a way it might be good to have an unusual family name like Tarantino, Scorsese, Spielberg or Bellini since it makes you stand out from the crowd and easier to remember, so I’ll probably stick with Climent. As for my given name, Andreas, I’ll probably change it to Andy or Andrew. What do you guys think?
November 15th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I can relate. For my whole life, I’ve had the “how do you pronounce your name” conversation. It’s a little better now that Charlize is popular, though it is slightly disconcerting to see that I have a film in theaters “Theron’s latest film is a departure…”, etc.).
November 15th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Yeah well, try a name like Mary A. Batchellor. People think it’s a bloody joke. But that’s what I was born with.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:52 am
“Wouldn’t we betray our own family in a way by changing our name?”
Sometimes the families of origin don’t deserve the credit for our successes. I hate to sound bitter but sometimes this is true as well, like if they did nothing but put us down or actively sabotage our attempts to become writers, why should they see THEIR name up there on the screen?
November 15th, 2007 at 9:59 am
John, my last name is Condarcuri. Pronounced con-dar-cure-ee, though it’s really just pronounced con-da-cure-ee (the R in ‘dar’ is annoying to pronounce as it doesn’t fit in).
It’s easy to pronounce, but the problem with the name is how complex it look on paper. It’s like some people get a case of dyslexia when they see it. “Candaruccuri?” “Condarri?” “Carlo Cond… Carlo Conda… Carlo C.”
Changing my last name to something like Conda or Condo (or something else that’s more interesting that pertains to my natural last name) has come to my mind, but I’d feel bad about doing it. But maybe I should come up with a ‘better’ last name.
Your thoughts?
November 15th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Alternately, you could trim off the “Pier” part. I hate to say it, but thanks to Nintendo pretty much everyone in America these days is familiar with the name “Luigi”. I have to say that “Pier Bellini” does sound better, though, and I don’t think that anyone would have a problem with pronouncing it.
I actually thought about doing that, but in reverse. My family’s Italian name was “Adamo”, but it was anglicised to “Adams” when we immigrated to America. I actually considered changing my surname back to its Italian form, but in the end I decided that “Ian Adams” had a nice ring to it, so I kept it. (Besides, I can’t think of any Italians named “Ian” off the top of my head.)
November 15th, 2007 at 10:10 am
If it were Pietro Bellini, I would agree it sounds better. I’d actually keep the Luigi and drop the Pier. Luigi Bellini.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:11 am
MaryAn, I’m sorry but your name made me laugh. I like it though - I think that you should embrace it. At least for women, if they’re born with a not-so-great surname, there’s an opportunity to change it when getting married. I, for one, had to endure the name Budnik and countless takes on it - all of which included the word “butt” - until I married a Mendoza. Now my name may sound like a character that Fabio seduces in a romance novel but at least the association with my rump is gone.
Andreas, I think that you should keep your name as is. Andreas is more distinctive compared to the more generic Andy or Andrew while still being accessible. Besides, Americans love distinctive or foreign-sounding names based on baby name trends. It’s more difficult to find just a plain old John or Tom nowadays.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I have the same problem. My last name, Reinle, is from the region of Swabia in Germany. But since I live in Franconia even around here people always get it wrong and automatically think of the more common name around here: Reinelt.
Same with my first name, btw.
So I was always sure I was going to have to change my name for Hollywood.
My question though: How is that legally? Can I just chop stuff off my name however I want without getting into trouble, or do I have to register that somewhere? (I’m asking this because I imagine it’s a little different for foreigners. But I couldn’t find anything helpful about it so far.)
I hope someone can answer my question.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I actually like Pier Bellini. Pier is uncommon (in North America), but isn’t too weird to make people question it. There’s the author Piers Anthony. Plus, you can give reviewers the chance to say “Pier is without, well, peers when it comes to writing…”
As for unpronounceable last names, my last name should be EASILY pronounceable, but it’s almost always mispronounced. It’s Wearing. Pronounced just like the word. Hardly anyone ever guesses it right. Why it’s so difficult I have no idea.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Names can be tricky, and not just in terms of establishing your name career wise.
In my case, my dear grandma decided to combine my parents initials to create my first name, “Yili”, which nobody can pronounce.
So, on my senior year, after countless years of endlessly spelling my name and correcting people about its pronunciation, I decided to go with my middle name.
Since then, life has been a lot easier in that regard.
But going back to the original post, Pier Bellini sound cool. As someone else said, Luigi would be too Mario Bros.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:45 am
This is actually a topic I’ve been pondering lately, as I work through NaNoWriMo and start to see a potentially sellable novel at the end of it (or, if that doesn’t fly, something I can convert to a screenplay). How much do readers, reviewers, and editors really think about the name attached to the work? With something like the OP here, I’d think that would be a distinctive thing, but my full name (IMO) is short and bland. If I do have some success with my writing, I’m considering using something slightly more flashy. John, do you find that to be a consideration among writers, or in the industry in general?
November 15th, 2007 at 10:53 am
My name is Michael Scott. Isn’t that the blandest name you’ve ever heard? It’s also, of course, Steve Carrell’s character on The Office.
Many’s the time I’ve thought of that episode of The Simpsons, where the cop show with the oafish character named “Homer Simpson” prompted Springfield’s Homer to change his name to “Max Power.”
Now THAT’S a writer’s name.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Yeah my name is bland as shit. My last name is like another first name, which is even more boring. I want an interesting name, like David Benioff. John August would work too. I guess those names are already taken.
Pier Bellini sounds very cool to me. Good luck to you Mr. Bellini. I look forward to seeing your movies.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Keepin’ it, Michelle because people DO remember it!
November 15th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Keep your name as is. Bellini’s awesome, it reminds me of the great Federico Fellini. A close friend and great commercials director recently told me that the agency execs don’t remember you by name but by the concept/twist one puts on the table.
Same counts for your script pitch. Remember the guy (with the funny name) with the ‘xyz’ idea.
Regards,
Matthys Christoffel Boshoff — Try pronounce that correctly!
PS nearly everyone outside South Africa still gets Theron wrong.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Pierluigi,
You don’t have to change your name on your scripts. Your teacher is wrong. Period. Your work will be judged on its creative and commercial merit, and on no other terms.
On behalf of all Readers and development execs in Hollywood, to all writers…
We’re not THAT asshole-ish. We will dismiss your material after ten pages if it’s poorly written. But everyone gets a fair shot. We don’t dismiss or get skeptical of a script just because there’s a ‘foreign sounding name’ on the title page.
C’mon, John A., you were a reader yourself, you know better than that.
Sheesh!
November 15th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I do love the fact that John explained away the bombshell of August not being his birth name and then dropped in the story about the county clerk calling him before a judge… and never explained that!
November 15th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Keith G - I think that John was referring to the fact that he had to go to court in order to get his name legally changed.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Peir Bellini would also put you in the august company (as opposed to August company) of Pier Paolo Pasolini, to whose name yours would sound similar!
November 15th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Whoops! Typo. Should have said Pier Bellini, not Peir.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I have a similar question. I have an incredibly common first and last name. In fact, there are already a successful TV producer, a successful (though no longer living) movie producer, a video game producer, an artist, and a Presidential adviser with my name. There’s even an actor with my middle name, though he uses a slightly different spelling of my first name.
I’ve been writing scripts under the name Steve M. Friedman to distinguish myself as best I can, but I wonder if that’s good enough. Should I come up with a unique pseudonym, or is my middle initial enough to differentiate me from the other Stephen/Steven/Steve Friedmans in the world?
November 15th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Any ideas on my last name, Condarcuri (con-dar-cure-ee)? This chop-shop for names is kinda fun.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I think Pierluigi is a fantastic name, is not difficult to pronounce, and can only help him get noticed in this town. Pier Bellini sounds like a cross between Pier 1 and, well, a shop that sells bellinis.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Carlo, I actually think Condarcuri sounds pretty good but Conda also sounds like a nice alternative.
Thanks for the feedback Michelle =)
November 15th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I like Pietro Bellini, myself. Sounds like a sculptor. Or a filmmaker. But also: be what you are. August is a cool name. I like it as a first name, too. People often think my name is fake. In high school I got the “best actress with an adjective for a last name” award in the school play. : D
November 15th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
One thing I’ve always wondered about pen names. How do you cash the check from the publisher/studio?
November 15th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
LOL Kati. I would agree that Pierluigi is an awesome name. If he wants to choose Pier, there’s no point because, if anything, that’d be the part of the name that people would mispronounce. I don’t think anyone would ever mispronounce ‘luigi’, so just keep Pierluigi.
@ Andreas To me, Condarcuri sounds kind of clunky. Plus, since my middle name starts with a C as well, if I chose Conda, I could be aka C.C. Conda. LOL not trying to be like J.J. Abrams
November 15th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Wow, I had no idea you changed your name, John. Details like that always intrigue me. It’s crazy that a name - a few letters - can have such weight.
Theres actually a saying in German: “Hast du ‘ne Meise?” It basically means: “Are you crazy?”
November 15th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Pier Bellini is a good name. Perhaps even PL Bellini. John and your teacher are right.
Never underestimate the ignorance of Americans.
As a born-and-bred American with a non-Anglo first, middle and last name, I can’t tell you how hard it was growing up with ignorant people not even TRYING to pronounce my name correctly. Some teachers insisted on calling me by my nickname and even put it on my records! I even had one employer tell me he almost didn’t call me in for a job because he saw my name and assumed I didn’t speak English!
I haven’t encountered anything like this outside the United States.
When I came to L.A., I changed my name to get acting work. Even though I spelled it phonetically ON MY HEADSHOT, people still butchered it. Didn’t get many calls either until I made the change.
Makes me wish I could use CCH Pounder.
Sorry, guys. This struck a nerve.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Sterc–I always figured “Stercus Accidit” was your word-scrambled screen name. Please tell me this is the truth, because this post above is turning my world to bits.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
“Stercus Accidit” is my motto and screen name, not a jumble of my real name.
You know what it means, don’t you?
November 15th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
I think his name is fine and he shouldn’t worry much about that. I would worry a bit about all of the ‘gonna’s’ and ’causes’. That’s fine for dialogue but feels out of place in a letter to a professional writer.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Can you change your ’screen’ name without changing your ‘real’ name? (rhymes for the win)
November 15th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
That’s showbiz, honey.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
If you want people to read your scripts, change your last name to something really generic… like, oh, i dunno… Spielberg.
-Dr. Eric Awesome, esq. III
November 15th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
ps - i actually really just want to agree with all the people who say keep your name… yeah, it might take 15 minutes to explain it, but that’s a good icebreaker. and just ask the gov. of california if his name ever hurt his ability to win over Americans… pretty much, unless your name is Hitler or Stupidface, it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot. If it’s something you’re truly self-conscious about, then, yeah, trim it. But do it for yourself, not others. You know, like a nose job.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Bellini - reminds me of (Paul)Bellini from Kids In The Hall. Great name.
Now, if you were to work in the service industry in the U.S., you would have to go by Mike.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Carlo, if you’re seriously considering changing your name, I would like to suggest Condari. The reason being is that “Conda” reminds me of Condaleeza Rice and “Condo” reminds me of, well, a condominium. Plus I think that Carlo Condari has a nice, lyrical quality to it. Good luck!
November 15th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
LOL. Condaleeza Rice. XD Condari sounds fugly to me, just because it looks really weird on paper and, believe it or not, it’s one of the many mispronounciations of my last name.
“Carlo… Conda… Carlo Condari?” “Why you little…”
November 15th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Great Topic, John! If that is your real first name(smile). I am about to submit some scripts and I want to use my initials instead of my given name because I don’t want scriptreaders/development people to know my gender until they read me-you know like J.K. Rowlings. If I do this, can I still go back to writing under my full given name? If I use a totally different name/alias on my work, what do they put on my check when I get sold/paid? When I get into the WGA (boy, I’m thinking real positive here), will I be listed under my alias or my real name?
The scriptreader said they’re not biased but this industry is SO biased! Just look at all those actors who changed their names b/c of its obvious ethnic/racial identity! You may say that was in the past but I still hear ethnic-looking actors (read this as minorities, inter-racial and foriegn born actors with non-British accents)complain about being asked to change something about themselves to fit in and then still get type-casted anyway. Sorry, I am not naive enough to believe that this doesn’t happen in the writing world.
Keep the faith on the strike-line, John. I’ll try to come out tomorrow to cheer you guys on.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
When I was 14, and a “romantic” teenage poet, I wanted to change my name to “Mysti Knight.” Thankfully, my friends all had more sense than I and told me that a) Mysti Knight was an awful name and b) Laura Deerfield was an outstanding literary name.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Excellent question, it’s something I’ve wondered too and I need advice…
In the current global political climate, would my Islamic name have a negative influence over how my work is received and should I think of changing mine? My ambition is to work in Hollywood, but just the other day I saw an American on television who claimed he wouldn’t vote for Senator Obama for President because his name sounds “a lot like Osama” to him. I’m not painting all Americans with the same brush, but you get my point?
I’m English, a mix of Pakistani and Irish but not religious in the slightest. My scripts don’t have any religious or racial themes, unlike a lot of Asian origin writers in the UK who just write about their own community stories. So would I be better off with a generic name?
I’ve heard a counter point before, about quotas and taking advantage of affirmative action that studios may have in place. In fact, I’ve entered a Channel 4 (UK network television broadcaster) competition to write a pilot, in the submission pack there’s a “diversity monitoring form” which smacks of affirmative action.
I’d like to think it doesn’t matter what creed or colour you are, but trying to get into this business is hard, should I play it safe?
November 16th, 2007 at 9:37 am
John : You should have worked in France. In French , “meise” is pronounced “mèse” , so even if it’s the wrong pronounciation, it’s easy for a French to say it.
My real name is Raphael Czaja… only five letters but nobody can say it correctly… I’d like to change to Avery (also as an hommage to Tex Avery)… Raphael Avery sounds good to me.
November 16th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
“And by the way, I find Perluigi is a beautiful name.”
And yet, you managed to misspell it. The issue isn’t whether it’s beautiful, it’s whether people can remember it and whether it will cause awkward situations from people saying it wrong.
I totally agree with the advice in the blog post. Bellini is a piece of cake. Pier, Luigi, PJ, or anything else that simple (your middle name?) would be easier to deal with, and wouldn’t require any paperwork to change. And if you’re just getting started, it’s not like you’re stuck with it forever, if you start out as Pier and switch to Pierluigi later, it’s not the end of the world, and people would figure it out easily. Francis Ford Coppola has credited himself as just Francis Coppola some of the time.
The best name story I’ve heard recently is Jimbo Wales, head honcho of Wikipedia. Many people assume his given name is James, but it actually is just Jimbo. Oddly enough, on his wikipedia page people often come by and try and get the page renamed to “James Wales”. The best part is that his friends all call him Jimmy.
Along the same lines, for years Frank Zappa assumed his given name was Francis until he saw that his birth certificate said “Frank”.
November 16th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
So I’m assuming last names need to be legally changes, no matter what? Would Conda be a ‘nickname version’ of Condarcuri? Or would it need to be legally changed in order for me to credit myself as Carlo Conda?
November 16th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
A close friend christened his child ‘Jack Danger Brennan’. The kid can walk out in life and say ‘My middle name’s Danger’ — for real.
I bet he’ll be known as Danger until he goes 6 feet under and beyond. It’s a great name if he turns out an adventure junkie, an even better name if he turns out a nerd.
Moral of the story: Think about your child’s future before handing out names…
November 17th, 2007 at 2:54 am
Okay, here’s another German example and it’s easy to pronounce around the globe… So does anybody know what (Johnny) “Depp” means in Germany? “Depp” means “Idiot”. It’s a Bavarian word, but now used all over this country.
November 18th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Nas (#44):
I wouldn’t recommend de-ethnicizing your name. Just as Pier Bellini remains Italian, just easier, you want a name that is still you, but simple.
Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan is the given name of M. Night Shyamalan. Yes, people trip over that last part, but the name as a whole is memorable.
If Nas Ahmed is your full name, there’s nothing particularly tough about it, although I suspect you get a 50/50 split between “nass” and “noss.” If that’s annoying enough for you to pick a more Western first name (like Jonas), go for it.
November 18th, 2007 at 11:14 am
My last name being GEORGEFF…was more than a mouthful for so many teachers, bosses and lately ( the past 5 years ) execs., agents, producers, etc., reading my work.
When I was in college…it was my dream to change my name and go for something short and easy.
Even approached my Dad about it, get the advice from the sage. He shook his head and asked…what?
Few years ago he passed away…too many years ahead of his time.
My dream was to make it and make it big while he would be around for some time.
As things have started taking off slowly — real slowly — to hell with changing my name.
Thanks Pops.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Just think of your name as a famous athlete being announced by a sports announcer.
Nas Ahmed walks past the half court line. He passes it to Pierluigi Bellini who then tosses it to Mark Georgeff and, oh! He deeks out Steven Spielberg and rushes past the opposing centerman John August! He goes up for the lay-up and… it’s in! The Scribes are up 84 - 83 with ten seconds left in the game. The A-Listers have possession of the ball now. Can they net a point and win this game? Steven Spielberg begins the play and passes the ball to J.J. Abrams. J.J passes to centerman John August, who then passes to Damon Lindelof who is behind the 3-point line! He’s wide open and takes the jumper! But he fakes it! He fakes it! He passes it, mid-air, to Carlo Condarcuri for a lay-up slam dunk and IT’S GOOD! The A-Listers WIN THE GAME!
Wooo!! That’s right, I’m on J.J Abram’s team. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. And good hustling, John. Our coach George Lucas will be proud.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
John (#50)
Thanks for taking to time to reply to my question, John, your opinions are very much appreciated.
In England, I get a mix of Nass and Nazz. Americans do tend to call me “Noss”, like the rapper’s pronunciation, rather than Nass.
November 21st, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Pier Bellini Is a good name either that or Luigi Bellini that way there is no confusion
January 1st, 2008 at 1:41 am
Josef Andreas Crestmere is my pen name.
The two first names are versions of my first and middle names. The last name was taken from a comic character but it had an aura of old world literature about it.
Nothing wrong with my old name but I think the new one looks better on credits.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Try GEORGEFF as a last name. Even my folks would get me confused with my two brothers. And everyone outside my family never got my last name right.
Trust me…it’s easy to pronounce, when its your own.
MARK11
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
While names are the topic of discussion, I will bring up mine (not my absurdist Duchamp-meets-Trek Internet callsign, but my real name: Stephan Vladimir Bugaj). I stumbled upon this Q&A while reading the “back issues” on this site not long after I’d been sarcastically riffing on name changes and success vis-a-vis Juno: http://lhooqtius.blogspot.com/2008/01/real-secret-to-junos-success.html I am quite fond of my real name and the family that gave it to me, and have been extremely resistant to changing it for professional purposes. But, it is not that easy for non-Slavs to pronounce. The other factor in whether or not to change it is this: I’ve got several below-the-line credits on major productions, and prior publications in technical fields outside the film industry, using my real name. No industry is particularly very kind to labor trying to move into management (or technical into creative, or support staff into the mainline of the business), and I am wondering if the fact that I’ve got technical credits using my real name will be a problem when going out with a script or a reel as a writer or writer-director. Obviously, I know that the most important factor is having good work to present, but beyond that how much of a problem is my name (and its other, prior associations)? Thank you in advance to John or anyone else who may provide some fodder for my own internal debates on the matter.