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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/39717
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'd like to write a story, in the third-person perspective, centering on a character who changes her name several times in the course of the story.

She uses her birth name for the first couple of chapters, then perform an "identity switcheroo" with another character, **with the intention of using that new identity for the rest of her life**. The two of them only meet twice afterwards. That new name would be used for about 2/3 of the story.

The switch would then be discovered and her old name used by some of the other characters and toward the end she would decide to create a new name for herself, with no intention of going back to the old ones.  
There are also parts of the story where she uses aliases, but they are short-lived and won't be used by the narrator.

At first, I wanted to add a paragraph describing her getting mentally used to her new name when it changes, then use it in the narrative until it changes again.  
On one hand, she absolutely intends to become a new person each time, and _sees herself_ as a "Jane" then a "Dolores", etc, at different points of the story, but I don't know if it would be clear enough for the reader

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_Note :_ there are other closely related questions but I'm not sure if their answers apply to this case.  
1) [Revealing MC's name midway through a story](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/5292/how-best-to-handle-revealing-a-main-characters-name-midway-through-a-long-story)  
2) [Character lying about her name](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/9392/how-to-handle-a-character-when-she-is-lying-about-her-name?noredirect=1&lq=1)  
3) [Character changes name but other call him by the old one](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/28393/how-does-the-narrator-address-a-character-who-has-changed-her-name-but-only-som?noredirect=1&lq=1)

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**Question :**

Would it be better for the narrator to use the MC's birth name for the whole story (especially since it makes a surprise comeback in the end) ?  
Or should the narrator adapt to the changes ?

Is there a better option, like giving her a nickname early on and using it through the story ?

Original score: 13