She changed her name to what it already was.

One curious element of our culture is the ease with which names can be changed.  Because we only use our first names, if you arrive and you share a first name with a member, you are encouraged strongly to change your name.  Sometimes this does not work especially well, at one point we had a Tom, a Thomas and a Mr Tom.  But generally it does.

Brittany had fallen into the trap of most people incorrectly pronouncing her name.  She wanted it pronounced with all three syllables. Brit-ten-ney. So she started to tell her friends that she wanted to re-claim all the syllables and thus “change” her name to what she really thought it already was.  Brittany is a mostly soft spoken, quirky, character who is widely appreciated and liked – we quickly embraced her desires and shifted our behaviors to state calling her the right thing.


Brittany and Christina