FreeDeedPoll.org.uk, Punk Rock Edition

2023-12-06

A Birmingham-based punky trio, Luxury Nan Smell, have released an EP called (Derogatory). The first track on that album? freedeedpoll.org.uk. Named in reference to my website of the same name.

Album cover art for (Derogatory), showing the title in pink cursive script over a three small white ovoid pills dissolving on the ground. The words "luxury nan smell" are carved into the pills.

Naturally, I was delighted, not least because it gives me an excuse to use the "deed poll" and "music" tags simultaneously on a post for the first time.

> Don't ask me what my "real" name is,

> I've already told you what it was,

> And I'm planning on burning my birth certificate.

The song's about discovering and asserting self-identity through an assumed, rather than given, name. Which is fucking awesome.

Like virtually all of my sites, including this one, freedeedpoll.org.uk deliberately retains minimal logs and has no analytics tools. As a result, I have very little concept of how popular it is, how widely it's used etc., except when people reach out to me.

Also: the website's basically unchanged for most of a decade and a half, and... umm... it looks it. I really ought to get around to improving and enhancing it someday.

People do: I get a few emails every month from people who've got questions (Common questions I receive are about legal gender recognition, about changing the names of children, about changing one's name while still a minor without parental consent, or about citizenship requirements. I've learned a lot about some fascinating bits of law.), or who are having trouble getting their homemade deed poll accepted by troublesome banks. I'm happy to help them, but without additional context, I can't be sure whether these folks represent the entirety of the site's users, a tiny fraction, or somewhere in-between.

Out of curiosity, I searched around for a bit and discovered a surprising amount of chatter about my site on social media, like a charming guy called Casper who talked about his experience of changing his name on his YouTube channel.

So it's obviously going to be a special surprise for me to have my website featured in a song.

I've been having a challenging couple of weeks (I've been struggling with a combination of the usual challenges at this time of year and a lack of self-care and also a handful of bonus household stresses: everything seems to be breaking all at once!), and it was hugely uplifting for me to bump into these appreciative references to my work in the wider Internet.

Links

Luxury Nan Smell on BandCamp

(Derogatory) on BandCamp

freedeedpoll.org.uk

My blog post detailing my experience of helping somebody to get their bank to accept their deed poll.

CreatingCasper video in which he described using freedeedpoll.org.uk to change his name

My blog post from December 2020 talking about finding the winter difficult and my self-care regimen.