As a young pretty/handsome person consuming Western media all those years ago when I was young and stupid. I came across Psych TV series. It struck me as weird that the male lead is called James Roday. The name made no sense. I did some digging as an aspiring polymath who wanted to do everything and discovered his name is James Rodriguez. Due to Union rules, he had to change it since another James Rodriguez already existed. It is the same with Elizabeth Banks who directed Pitch Perfect Pitch. Her real name is Elizabeth Mitchell, and we all know her so it would have been very awkward to have two famous Elizabeth Mitchells. I really didn't appreciate how Unions helped my sanity until I switched to Asian dramas. Kim Sohyun There is the actor born in 1988, the actress born in 1980, another actress born in 1998 or so. It is just so confusing. I imagine a drama where every cast member is called Kim Sohyun from the male and female lead to their parents.. ARGHHH Lee Siyoung The actress is a trained boxer who has won titles, so I always imagine that her male costars are actually hurt when she hits them MUAHAHA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Si-young So, a new drama with Lee Siyoung comes out and I jump on board and its another actress. Same name same year of birth. You can't differentiate using the date of birth in this case. So annoying. This Lee Siyoung is the queen of melodramas and getting beat up emotionally. My bad, its Lee Sookyung who is the melodrama queen. I just had to type Loving You a Thousand Times and voila my confusion was resolved If mydramalist tags were useful this would have been resolved. I did search Surrogacy and got nothing there She also has a namesake too, go figure. Also, a model with a similar name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Sung-kyung Then I come across a new drama with Yoon Shi Yoon, my favorite Korean actor because I am way taller than he is(I dont find him threatening) Lee Siyoung is playing a recent high school graduate, she was born in 1982 and this drama was in 2017 so I felt it was a miscast but I didnt mind then BAM!! Its another actress born in 1992. Seriously, this is just maddening at this point. But she is cute so all is forgiven https://mydramalist.com/people/4047-lee-se-young I think Korean would name identical same sex twins the same first and last names just to piss me off Lee Minyeong/ Lee Minjung A lovely actress who married Lee Byung whatever his name, I dont care for dudes who marry my crushes. He was in G.I. Joe I believe So a new drama came out with Lee Minyeong, I hop on board and turns out its another Lee Minyeong slightly older born in 1976. This is so not fair. I came here for Lee Minyeong's smile Then you have the Chinese one Zhang Meng, beauty queen that had to change her stage name to Zhang Alina because a younger and more popular Zhang Meng entered the scene If only people had the decency of actress Chae Soobin to change their names, an older male actor is called her given name Bae Soobin. Sometimes I wonder if Koreans do not know stage names exist @Triphily If I could get people to write similar articles it will be nice PS I can't find a link to the other Lee Siyoung's profile, makes sense when you have 2 people born the same year with the same name. I did find yet another Lee Siyoung though : https://mydramalist.com/people/38555-lee-shi-young
Why would anyone be forced to change their names just because there's someone with the same name previously? That's like saying the names that our parents give are worth less than union rules. Who think anyone has the right to force others to change their names just because they don't want to be confused with someone else? Names can't be trademarked. If Ai-chan's real name is Marie Supercharge, and there's 10 other popular Marie Supercharge before Ai-chan, then Ai-chan should be allowed to be the 11th Marie Supercharge. Same with if there's one super popular Marie Supercharge before Ai-chan, Ai-chan should be allowed to be the second Marie Supercharge simply because Ai-chan's parents give that name to Ai-chan when Ai-chan was born. If Ai-chan is the second Marie Supercharge, then Ai-chan should be allowed to keep that name. Over here people would just call Ai-chan with 'Marie Supercharge from Licking Badly' or 'younger Marie Supercharge' or 'Licking Badly Marie'. To us Asians, the names we received from our parents are important, so even if the names suck or funny, we would not discard it. We'd tell people to call us by a variation of our names if we don't like our names. For example, Lee Chee Wai would probably tell us to call her Waiwai or Chichi simply because she didn't like people calling her Cheebai. That being said, Ai-chan understands people voluntarily giving themselves pseudonyms for various reason. Ai-chan too uses pseudonyms. However, that was personal choice, for the sake of protecting Ai-chan's mundane life, it was not forced on Ai-chan by the publication industry or the modelling agency. Well, since we're talking about the union
We are not saying change your real names. We are talking about stage names. You are making apple to oranges comparisons. It is usually detrimental to your career to have someone share the same stage name. Legal names stay the same. I am sure you prefer Tom Cruise to Thomas Cruise Mapother IV It is more obvious with singers
You like saying the word "apple to oranges". Ai-chan doesn't think it means what you think it means. It is not detrimental to your career. Nowadays all you need to do is to press a few buttons on the keyboard to find out 20 different sites about 3 people with the same name. Sure, Tom Cruise is better than Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, but Ai-chan didn't say anything about changing their legal names, Ai-chan was talking about the names they use for their work. Using your favourite terms, apple to oranges, Ai-chan was 1. Not talking about Unions forcing people to change their real names 2. From what you originally said, Union rules forced people to take on other names for their work, because someone else took that name Now to make this clearer, Ai-chan was not saying that Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is forced to change their legal name into Tom Cruise. Ai-chan was saying that if there is an actual person born as Thomas Cruise, then he should have the right to use the name Tom Cruise or Thomas Cruise as his stage name, instead of being forced to use the name Tom Santorini. Similarly, if there is a person whose birthname is Tom Hanks, he should be allowed to use the name Tom Hanks when he starts working in movies instead of being forced to change his name into Tom Hangs.
Names are so outdated, everyone should just be named after a serial number. No need to worry about the serial numbers repeating.