On changing my name, again
Hi, ✋🏼I have just changed my name.
I have changed my surname from the seemingly impossible to spell or pronounce Rowsell to instead adopt my mother’s maiden name, Fergusson. It wasn’t the infuriation of constantly being called Roswell 👽 that did it, although it probably did factor into the decision a little. No, the reason is simply because of my mum. Most of what I do in life is due to her and how she inspired others. Mum was Pam Fergusson, and to honour her name by making it mine felt like the right thing to do for some time now. She passed away 8 years ago. Both my brothers joined the Fergusson clan many years back and 20 years ago all three of us had the Fergusson crest tattooed on our left arm for eternity. Mum changed back to her maiden name when we were kids so I am the last to Fergussonify.
But Rowsell wasn’t my name to start with either.
Rowsell actually came from my ex-wife Mel. She has always been Mel Rowsell, and when we married I decided to take her name because her dad was the last bloke in his line of Rowsells and had three daughters. So that was supposedly it for the Rowsell name, if you wanted to be all patriarchal about it. Mel and I decided to keep the name going. We would be Rowsells and so would our kids and their kids. Fate’s funny, we went and had two daughters so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Brilliant plan. Mel and I are no longer married, but still good friends, so it made sense to give her family’s name back.
But this wasn’t the first time I have changed my name. You could say I have a weird history with names. Before I married I was Vaughan Knaggs.
I have spent the longest part of my life being Vaughan Knaggs. All of my friends as kids knew me as Vaughan Knaggs. I went to 6 schools in two countries as Vaughan Knaggs but I wasn’t born Vaughan Knaggs, and so it came a surprise to me and my friends that when I enrolled into university and supplied my birth certificate I suddenly became Douglas Knaggs. That’s what’s written on it.
Vaughan wasn’t my name either.
The name Douglas Knaggs is my birth name and came from my grandfather (Douglas) and my dad (Knaggs). Actually my granddad was also Douglas Knaggs as there were many Douglas Knaggs’ going back on my fathers side. It was quite an honour to have this very traditional name. Vaughan was my middle name, but it was originally going to be my first name if it wasn’t for the awkward initials I’d be stuck with. Apparently VD were quite embarrassing initials in the 70’s. So although my birth certificate said Douglas I grew up Vaughan regardless, as my mum and dad preferred that. But there I was at university suddenly as Douglas Knaggs. I tried to convince people I was actually Vaughan but with every class I became Douglas again.
After university when I got my first job Douglas stuck. I was referred by my dean to the CEO of a new start-up that was looking for an engineer. I was introduced as Douglas again, and by this time it had kinda stuck. You see I realised I had two sets of people who either knew me personally, i.e. via my family or school who called me Vaughan, and those who knew me from university, and now my professional life, who called me Douglas. I am one of those people who just can’t remember names or place faces so it did make it easier to figure out where people knew me from by the name they used. So I was both Vaughan Knaggs AND Douglas Knaggs simultaneously. It got confusing when I was out with friends and bumped into work colleagues or vice versa. Like the time I visited my old school friend Rhys Darby when he was doing comedy at The Classic, we sat at the front table, and Rhys spied me and subsequently incorporated me, “Vaughan Knaggs”, as one of the characters in his set. No one at the table knew that name other than Rhys and I, so it was a very private joke. Before all this I was Vaughan Knaggs, for the first 17 years of my life.
And so I have had a few names in my life. I have been Vaughan for 82% of it, Douglas for 18%, Knaggs for 66% and Rowsell for 34%. I could probably draw a cool Venn diagram but I tried to figure it out and it got confusing. I have been Vaughan Fergusson for exactly 0% of my life but it feels like the name I should be for many reasons and I am sure people will get used to it.
So hi ✋🏼, kia ora tātou. Ko Karioi te Maunga. Ko Te Tai-o-Rehua te Moana. Ko Ngāti Kōtarani te Iwi. Ko Fergusson te Hāpu. Ko Pamela rāua ko Richard ōku mātua. Ko Vaughan tōku ingoa. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.
