Laura McLay -> Laura Albert: OR Punk Rocker changes her name

My name has changed back to my birth name. It’s a long story. The short story is that I started a new chapter in my life, and I am much happier.

I have decided to change my name in professional circles fully back to Laura Albert. It’s been about a year and a half since the divorce was finalized and about a year after legally changing my name. There is no timeline for when to make these changes. It’s a process. I’m working at the pace that feels right to me.

My twitter handle has changed to @lauraalbertphd. If you follow my old handle on twitter, then you already follow my new handle.

I appreciate Lara Hogan’s excellent blog post and article about changing her name post divorce. These are the best articles I could find about the topic. I appreciate that it took her two years until she was ready to make the change professionally because she was already known by her married name and had several fears about losing recognition and having awkward encounters with colleagues and acquaintances. I can relate. It’s a pain to go through a name change at this stage of my career, but returning to Laura Albert feels right to me. Changing my name is part of getting myself back, and that part feels great. But I still have fears. Having a one year lag between changing my name legally and changing it professionally helped me give my new name a test drive and get through the transition in my personal life, which then gave me the confidence to change my name professionally. Yet I am still afraid that no one will recognize me with a different name.

I’m asking you to accept that I’m going by Laura Albert now and to do your best to adapt to the new name. In many places online, I will be “Laura McLay” for awhile or forever. That’s OK. I am sure I will be accidentally called “Laura McLay” for years to come, and that’s OK too.

I live in Madison with my three daughters. We are a great team, and being a single mom is pretty awesome. I joke that our house is like Paradise Island, where I am an Amazon raising three Wonder Women on an island of all girls. Their dad lives out of state, which means I am the sole parent for most of the year. I’m happy to say my daughters and I are thriving. Many of you know all of this. The support you have given and continue to give to me means the world to me. Thank you 🙂