Would You Change Your Name for a Brand New Life in a Brand New City?

What would make you change your name? I am not talking about establishing a nickname, a creative name as an author, musician or similar, but legally a new name? I personally have thought about changing my last name – Stareva – to something simpler such as “Star” because living abroad (i.e. in Western European countries where people find it rather difficult to pronounce Slavic names) I’ve always heard people saying or spelling my name wrong. Nevertheless, I still like my name – it brings me back to my routes and it’s my family name that I carry with honour. But what if there was another pretty good incentive besides personal reasons to officially change your name?

That’s what Lufthansa is currently trying to find out by encouraging Swedish citizens to change their names to Klaus-Heidi (a fusion between two very German names). The prize? A brand new life in Berlin. Doesn’t sound bad at all, does it?

Here’s what one lucky Swedish citizen would get, if he or she changed his or her name to Klaus-Heidi:

• one way ticket from Stockholm to Berlin;
• a private chauffeur to bring the lucky one from Berlin/Tegel Airport to the new apartment;
• a brand new 70 m² apartment with two rooms and a kitchen for a whole year in one of Berlins most up and coming areas;
• a handbuilt bike by myownbike.de, custom-painted with the winner’s new name, including a helmet in matching colours;
• and just about everything else one needs to start a new life in one of Europe’s most exciting cities.

If you feel that changing your name is too drastic, but still want to explore Lufthansa, the German airline offers 200 SEK travel discount, or a voucher worth 500 SEK for those who change their name to Klaus-Heidi on Facebook.

Now that’s what I call out-of-the-box thinking, wouldn’t you say?

The PR campaign has apparently created quite a lot of buzz in the online space and according to PR examples, more than 300 people have already inquired about changing their name on the Swedish government website. I am really curious to see if someone is really going to do it. Nevertheless, the campaign has already brought a lot of attention to Lufthansa and its destinations, so it has effectively fulfilled its purpose.

What would make you change your name?