[Updated] Change of name from Boyle to Riversdale - the reason

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Despite what everyone tried to tell me, "Boyle", was never that cool ... oh, you already knew did ya :-) And Liz's surname wasn't that much better either (Eggleston) so we chose this name after a beach town, Riversdale, on the eastern Wairarapa coast of the NZ North Island [ZoomIn map | Google Map].

And why there?
Liz and I have an affinity with Riversdale after being introduced to the place by a close friend, Emma. We often stay at her brothers' bach (Kiwi for 'beach holiday home') and it was on our first visit that Liz, under the sparkling stars and within earshot of the ocean, proposed to me.

Once we had decided to come up with a brand new family name it seemed appropriate to refer back to where it all began.

And it sounds quite cool.

And it's unique in the NZ phone book


[Update 10-Jun-2014] There's a little more to just changing the name.
After deciding that "Boyle" and "Eggleston" weren't going to be our new family surname the vexed question of what will had Liz and I bumbling around for quite some time. We turned to our friends and asked what they thought and had a number of [unpublishable] suggestions. 

My ex, +Judith Cahill and  her hubby suggested Merlot. Hmm, Merlot, that had a ring - Liz Merlot, Jack Merlot (we knew he was a boy and on his way) ... but then me, Mike Merlot, nah. I sounded either like a dodgy car salesman, "'Ere, guv, wanna see a lahvery motah!" and/or the estate agent Mike Perot. The funny thing is we pondered Merlot long enough to come up with the family saying:
Meet the Merlot's, we're full bodied and fun to be with but if you have too much of us you'll end up with a headache.
Riversdale as a surname just popped into the air one conversation with Liz and, well, we liked it and plumped for it.

Changing to +Liz Riversdale was always going to be easy, just tick the box to take my name at the wedding ceremony and voila, all done for $0 cost.

Jack was easy as well. Once he was born we had the official "give your baby a name" form (you have months and months before you have to send it in) and we just filled in Jack Riversdale - done. He could've had any surname we liked.

Then there was me. I rang all the 'official' people in my life - power, phone, bank, doctors and the like. About 50% changed it there and then on the phone call but the rest wanted to see my official papers but I couldn't be arsed paying for that and just let them know that, "I've changed my name, it's entirely up to you what label you put against my customer/account number" - it's the number we're known by anyway.

The bank wouldn't let it lie though and had months of endless invitations to come and see the manager. I declined as I had other things to get on with - wedding, new son, life ...

As we got closer to the wedding however it was becoming apparent that for me to fill in the Deed Poll, pay my money was the cheapest for us all. So I did. I'll admit it made getting the NZ passport updated a lot easier which I then just showed to the UK dudes here for my UK passport renewal and voila - never filled in a British Deed Poll but officially I am now +Mike Riversdale the world over.

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