What's in a name?

A friend of more than 20 years recently looked at this blog and said "Since when do you go by 'Kimmy?'"

The answer is... since about birth.

But this started me thinking. By how many names are we known? Birthnames, nicknames, pet names, maiden names, married names, legal names, professional names...and those are just the ones we know about. Who knows what we are called behind our backs. But I digress.

Just dealing with our first names can lead to identity confusion. Personally, I have been known to answer to all of the following variations:
Kim
Kimmy
Kimberly
Kim Kat
Kimmy Kat
Kimbo
Kimba
Kimothy
Kimly
Kimberlisa
Kimlet
and Jill. Yes, Jill. I was going through a phase.

Some represent certain stages of my life, others are pet names assigned to me by a variety of people. Ironically, the Social Security Adminstration knows me as Kimberly, but in my whole life, only the IRS and my doctor actually feel comfortable using that in a sentence.