The use and abuse of deed polls

Reading Francis Wheen's How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World recently (quick review: I agree with Dave, who called it 11 essays in search of a book) I was reminded of the Demos researcher who, eager to show how forward-thinking and future-grasping a policy wonk he was, changed his name from something mundane to the retro-futuristic styling of 'Perri 6'. Now, you'd think that, like the tabloids' 'Lenny Lottery', he'd have quietly changed it back to his old name when all the publicity died down, especially after he moved on from Demos. Well, you'd be wrong. Spare a thought for all those poor researchers who have to credit papers by '6 P' or 'P 6' in their theses and dissertations, then have to explain how it's not a typo.

It prompts a thought, though - has any other demented neophiliac added '.com' to their name by deed poll yet? Or, in the interests of showing how blogging is the answer no matter what the question is, rebranded (and you know that it'd be the sort of person who finds it hard to utter a sentence without at least one word of soulless marketing-speak like 'rebranding' within it) themselves officially as 'firstnamelastname.blogspot.com'?