personal name - Taking an academic pseudonym?

I am a senior undergraduate about to publish my first academic paper, and have been thinking about taking an academic pseudonym to make myself easier to identify.

My full name is shared by at least three famous people (including one celebrity and one international athlete), and at least two people inside academia (one of whom works in my field). This is my major reason for wanting to change. In modern academia, it seems online identity/SEO is becoming increasingly important, and I don't want to have to compete for namespace with other people, who are:

1. more famous than I'll likely ever be; and


2. already have established careers and goodwill under that name.

Basically, it seems like it could be a real hindrance when trying to get my career off the ground.

I am quite attached to my first name, so I'm thinking about changing my last name only to an ancient variant of it. It's a similar name, but much less common, and it couldn't be mistaken as a misspelling of my real name (think Busher vs Bouchier, or Lombard vs Lambert). I can't find evidence of anyone online using that name, so it seems to solve all the problems mentioned above.

I hope to continue into academia and become a professor, in which case I would publish and be known professionally under the new name. I'd rather not legally change my name, or have to change my name within my personal life, so it would be a situation of having separate professional and personal names. In the event I don't succeed/continue into academia, I could always just revert to my real name (unlikely that my published work will be relevant anyhow).

I'd like to get advice from you all, especially those of you that use a pseudonym in your academic work. A couple questions I have:

1. Does this seem like a worthwhile idea?


2. Could there be any issues with having different legal and professional names in a university IT system?



3. Should I change my undergrad enrolment to be under my new academic name? How about when applying to postgrad/PhD programs?


4. If I don't do (3), could/should I get degrees reprinted (once I have an established career) under my academic name, rather than my personal name?


5. Are there any hairy issues that could arise from this, which I might not have considered?

Thanks!

Answer

If you have a middle name, then you could add a hyphen to derive a new name, e.g., Alpha Bravo Charlie could become Alpha Bravo-Charlie.

Does this seem like a worthwhile idea?

Yes

Could there be any issues with having different legal and professional names in a university IT system?

Yes, but this will vary university to university. An obvious problem might be the assignment of email addresses, e.g., Alpha.Bravo@university.edu, but this can be resolved by a polite email.

Should I change my undergrad enrolment to be under my new academic name?

This mightn't be possible, you'd need to justify (perhaps legally) a reason (which you cannot legally prove).

How about when applying to postgrad/PhD programs?

You need to be careful: Don't commit fraud. Being employed under a non-legal name is possibly illegal, publishing under a non-legal name is not.

could/should I get degrees reprinted (once I have an established career) under my academic name, rather than my personal name?

Some institutes may question a certificate in the "wrong" name, others won't, many won't check.

Are there any hairy issues that could arise from this, which I might not have considered?

You might inadvertently commit fraud...

EDIT: I had assumed a full name clash (that's what the OP wrote). If there's merely a partial name clash, e.g., Alpha Charlie, and the OP has a middle name, then I suggest that the OP simply uses their full name, e.g., Alpha Bravo Charlie, as their name, that is, they always use their full name and they don't drop their middle name.

EDIT II: The comments suggest using an initial, e.g., Alpha B Charlie or Alpha B. Charlie, but I'm not sure whether this helps for SEO; a full name, e.g., Alpha Bravo Charlie, seems more likely to succeed in terms of SEO.