Sigourney Weaver
I think sometimes there is this perception that it’s alright for famous people to change their name. They’re larger than life so they have a free ticket in society to do odd things like changing their names. And I think a lot of people assume that movie stars change their names right on the cusp of becoming famous — either because someone else already has a similar name, or to try to find a better name in order to promote themselves to their audience.
In fact, it is the American way to reinvent ourselves. The rags to riches story still has incredible power over our imaginations. Sigourney Weaver, originally named Susan Alexandra Weaver, would probably not fall in the rags to riches category, but it is still a great story of self invention. Her mother was Elizabeth Inglis, a former actress and her father was Sylvester Laflin Weaver, an NBC executive. She even had an uncle who was a well-known comedian and actor, Doodles Weaver.
At the age of 14, Susan read the book, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Susan was inspired by the character Sigourney Howard (Jordan Baker’s aunt), a minor character in the book, and soon thereafter she began referring to herself as Sigourney. First of all, what a provocative age that is to be exploring who you are and how you want to be called. Second, what great parents she must have had to raise a daughter and allow her to pick her own name.
And what a great name it is; today Sigourney Weaver is well-recognized all over the world. Her name recognition is a tribute to her long list of successful and critically-acclaimed roles. She starred in Gorillas in the Mist, Alien, Working Girl and a long list of others. And her career continues on. Her newest movie is Avatar, directed by James Cameron. According to Entertainment Weekly, Sigourney Weaver, “plays a botanist who is an ally of the alien Na’vi tribe.” Sounds like another strong character to add to her list!
Sigourney Weaver has a successful career. Of course her name is not responsible for that; she’s an incredibly talented actress. But I do think being the kind of person who at the age of 14 knows how to stand up for herself and choose how she will be called, is part of that same spirit that makes her so successful today.
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I remember when I was about 14 I wanted desperately to change the spelling of my name. There was one other Mindy in my school and she spelled it exactly the same way. I decided to change my spelling to “M-i-n-d-i”. Well, that stuck for all of about 3 days. Apparently, at age 14 I figured out Mindy with a “Y” was who I really was. Good for Susan (Sigourney) to figure out who she was, too! =)
Mindy
[...] have changed their names. I’ve described some of these in previous posts: Whoopi Goldberg, Sigourney Weaver, Elvis Costello, Angela Shelton, and Liv Tyler to name a few. Most of these name changes have [...]