chaoticsoul

If you know me well, you know that my name has always been a small point of contention with me. My full, legal name, is William Edward Kirkland, Jr. Not so bad, huh? Very regal sounding, very “British Royalty.” Nice job, mom and dad!

But then, you start to notice some issues. First of all, the whole going by the middle name thing. Don’t do that to your children. As a Junior, my dad was called “Ed” (”Eddie” growing up, which has made for a few interesting moments in and of itself), so it’s not like they specifically thought, “hey, let’s call him by his middle name, that will be cool!” But nonetheless, every first day of school I just knew I was going to have to explain things to the teacher. It goes like this…

Teacher: “William?… William?…”

Me: (I wake up and realize this psuedonym is really me.) “Yes, that’s me, but I go by my middle name.”

Teacher: “So you’re Edward?”

Me: “No, Eddie.” (snickers from around the room)

So, this was the typical drill, and to this day it makes things difficult. Like plane tickets, and bank accounts. Mom, Dad, I love you. And Dad, I’m thankful for my name. Don’t get me wrong. But you have to know this stinks… you’ve dealt with it too!

Then there’s the “Jr.” Which up until today, I regarded as a tag that I didn’t want people to know. My dad used to call me “Junior” just to make me mad. Again, Dad, I love you.

So why the change today? Because I just realized that in iTunes, when you register an album as “Eddie Kirkland,” the iTunes robots think that you are a large black blues singer. Hence the reason I don’t own eddiekirkland.com So, for now, when you go to iTunes and look me up, you’ll see “Orthodoxy” listed right next to “Booty Blues.” And currently, my top rated ringtone is “Honey Bee.” Oh yeah… that’s right… “Honey Bee.”

To remedy this situation, I have to change my name. Typically I think stage names are dumb and egotistical, but in this case we have a real need. I’m thinking about changing it to “Eddie Kirkland, Jr.” Which is somewhat lame, but Harry Connick pulled it off, and Sammy Davis, and Hank Williams, lots of people have done it. I guess it’s time to bite the bullet.

So I’ll open it up to an internet poll… what should my new name be? “Eddie Kirkland, Jr.”?? All comments are welcome, be creative, and I’ll announce my new name soon. …that’s weird, I know.