I’m a 52-year-old father, and I’m honestly at my wit’s end here. My 22-year-old son wants to change his last name to “Carrington,” and it’s driving me absolutely crazy. You see, he was named after me, and now he wants to throw that away just because he doesn’t like our family name. He’s been talking about this since he was 15-17, but I foolishly believed it was just teenage angst that would fade away with time. But here we are, years later, and he’s still hell-bent on becoming a “Carrington.” Why?
Well, for one, he’s never liked me or my last name, and he’s not close to my side of the family at all. My parents are in their 90s and still alive. I have siblings, but my son never spends time with them, and neither did I ever let my son visit them. The last time my son saw my parents or my siblings was when he was 10 years old, and that was it. But still, that doesn’t give him the right to change his last name, let alone to that of some character name he likes.
Because he watched some soap opera called “Dynasty” and fell in love with their last name. I mean, seriously? Changing his name to a fictional character’s name from a TV show sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. I’m really struggling to understand this whole situation. We don’t have any Carringtons in our family, and it feels like he’s disrespecting our family lineage and his ancestors. It’s like he’s trying to cut ties with his own heritage, and that just breaks my heart.
If he had a valid reason, like adopting his mother’s maiden name, changing his last name to his wifes name or for religious reasons, I would probably be more understanding. Heck, if he was transgender and changing his name to better reflect his identity, I would fully support him. But this? It feels like he’s going through some sort of identity crisis and hates himself for no good reason. I’ve suggested that he consider professional help or therapy to sort through his feelings and understand why he’s so adamant about this change.
But he brushes it off, saying he’s sure about this decision. I’m his father, and I can’t help but feel like it’s my business too. After all, I named him, and our family name has been passed down through generations. Now, it seems like it’ll stop with him.I want him to know that I still love him, but I won’t call him “Carrington.” To me, he’ll always be my son with the name I gave him. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but changing his name to something so fictional just seems immature and crazy to me.
My son also has no respect for me whatsoever. He doesn’t like me, care about me, and finds me annoying. He straight up said, ‘I couldn’t give a fuck less about you or your opinion. The fact that you think I should care proves how utterly stupid you are.’ He doesn’t consider his mother’s brother or cousin his ‘family’ either, and he truly doesn’t give one fuck about what I feel about this decision.
TL;DR: My 22-year-old son wants to change his last name to “Carrington” just because he watched a soap opera and liked their name. I think it’s ridiculous, disrespectful to our family lineage, and shows a lack of understanding about his own identity. I won’t call him “Carrington” and hope he’ll come to his senses soon. Any advice would be appreciated.
I call bullshit no kid in his twenties is watching a stupid nighttime soap opera from the 80’s let alone waiting to change his last name to the douchebags from that show.
This is literally the dumbest comment I have ever read.
“no kid in his twenties is watching a stupid nighttime soap opera from the 80’s”
Again, you are making a strong assumption here. First of all, the 80s soap opera was rebooted in 2017 on The CW. He could have watched the 2017 version, then watched the 80s version. Even if it was never rebooted, if this ‘kid in his 20s’ is super into film, TV, and movies, then yeah, he might watch soap operas. Non-fans of film might not, but if you are a real fan, you will.
“let alone waiting to change his last name to the douchebags from that show.”
Again, you are making a lot of assumptions here, which is weird and stupid. Considering (let’s assume this story is true), if he likes their last name and he truly doesn’t like or is disgusted with the current last name he has, then why wouldn’t he want to change it?
This is basically what you just said:
Post: My son hates their last name and wants to change his last name to ‘Stark.’ Iron Man is his favorite character.
Your comment: “This story is bullshit. No 22-year-old likes Marvel or superhero stuff. I don’t know this for certain, but I’m just going to make my own assumption and guess that no 22-year-old male likes superhero stuff, let alone is willing to change his last name to a character. I don’t know this dude, I’ve never met him, and he wouldn’t piss on me if I were on fire, but I’m just going to assume because…”