Fun with last names!

Here's a random topic: I'm thinking of having my last name changed. This is something I've actually been planning to do for a long time, but I always figured it would be a huge hassle and/or huge expense, so I never did. But, it turns out that, in California, at least, it's really straightforward to have your name changed: you just fill out a couple forms, bring them to the courthouse, then come back when they tell you to, and the judge changes your name, just like that. Apparently there's a 'court petitioning fee,' but all you have to do is declare yourself to be poor (yeah, there's a form for that, too), and they waive it more-or-less automatically. Also, my first scientific paper is going to be published soon, so I guess it's pretty much now or never!

I remember when I was a kid, my dad was sort of into genealogy, and he'd go on Biblical-style about our ancestors ("George, son of Peter, son of George, son of whoever, etc. etc."). It was kind of funny, actually. Dad's dad's ancestors were all evidently Greek peasants, and mom's descended mostly from Chinese soldiers (well, Taiwanese, now, since her family was exiled to Taiwan because they fought against the Communists in the civil war...). But get this: on my dad's mom's side, it turns out I'm the direct descendant of Sir Francis Drake! And I'm John Adams' great-great-great-great grandnephew or something. Grandma's a big mix of northern European blood -- German, Scots-Irish, English, some Norwegian and Swiss. I remember dad saying if we followed the old Norse naming convention, my last name would be Peterson (as in, 'Peter's son'). I thought that would be sort of a cool way to change my last name to something pronounceable, while still respecting my dad and our ancestry and all that, because it's not like I'm not proud of where we came from... Or, maybe I could change it to something shorter, but still Greek. Being (one quarter) Greek rules; I'm just not crazy about the mile-long, non-phonetic surname that comes with it. My last name doesn't shorten in any real obvious way, though. Maybe I'll ask James what he thinks...

On an unrelated note, if there's a prize for 'most tedious and uninteresting subject' out there, I'd like to award it to developmental biology. My god how I hate this class.