Our new column in Town & Style magazine. What fun it is to collaborate with the brilliant Jill Farmer — once an Emmy-award winning journalist and now a sought-after speaker and coach. In this column we address what’s in a name. In one case, we consider how to respond when your coworker asks you to change your name — you know to make things simpler at work. In another, we explore what to do when your daughter comes to you telling you she’s changing her name.

We’ve received reader feedback including this, “Just read your column in Town & Style……very smart answers! BTW, my 12 y.o niece decided last year to adjust her name… she is that young woman you describe in the 2nd answer……Bravo to you Beth and [my niece]!” And then we received another message with four hilarious stories about names… here’s just part of the message, “No one could pronounce my brother’s name and someone at work said can I just call you Don? He said ‘No, you can’t and it’s not that difficult to say if you put your mind to it and practice over and over again…’ Names are funny!”

Thanks for reading and for making it so much fun to ponder life together. Let us know what questions you might have and we may feature them in future columns. x

***Standard disclaimer: Written on the fly. Please excuse spelling and grammatical errors as well as partial thoughts, generalizations and unintended whiplash.