TIM BELFORD

What's in a name?

What would you do for money?

It's a question not many of us ask on a regular basis. But for several members of one family it's become a pressing concern.

Forty-five Canadians with the surname Dunlop have been asked to legally change their name to Dunlop-tire.

It's the latest marketing gimmick from the tire people.

If you change your name you get a share of the $25,000 prize money. The company will also pay the $200 fee to get the job done but your prize depends on the number of Dunlops who succumb to the lure of the cash since the money will be shared equally.

Now, money aside, changing one's name isn't as rare as you may think.

Leon Trotsky was born Lev Bronstein.

Whether he did it to hide his Jewishness or to hide from the czar's secret police we'll never know.

Joe Stalin was likely hiding from his original name which was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

Ulyanov became Lenin. Maybe it was a Russian thing.

Sometimes names get changed by accident.

There are quite a few Québécois Sylvains who, whether they know it or not, are all descended from an Irish soldier named O'Sullivan, who became Sullivan who became Sylvain.

Theatre folk were once fond of picking out stage names.

You have to wonder whether Frederick Austerlitz would have ever danced his way to fame if he hadn't become Fred Astaire?

And maybe the movie would have lost a little of the impact if it had starred Isadore Demski instead of Kirk Douglas. Personally, i'm quite happy that Doris Day sang "Que sera sera" and not Doris Kappelhof. But that's just my personal opinion.

When you come right down to it, I guess it doesn't matter. After all, as long as you know who you are that's what counts.

Years , one of my friends agonized over her impending wedding. She was about to go from being a member of the "Free" family to being a "bott."

The psychology of a name can be important as well. I mean, how often does it unconsciously affect the way your life unfolds?

Years ago. the executive head of the group representing Canadian podiatrists had the last name of Foot.

And then there's Professor Bird who heads the Raptor Institute at Macdonald College.

The most amazing example of this I've ever come across was the bank clerk - I guess I should say "clark" - at a branch of the Barkley's Bank in Great Britain.

There he was, wire-rimmed glasses, thinning hair, standing behind a metal cage, his name plate on the counter proudly proclaiming him as One P.M. Drudge.

How much more clerk-like could you get than "afternoon drudge?"

Anyway, if Canada's Dunlops really want to become Dunlop-tires, who can fault them.

I just hope the Visa people don't hook up with the Card family.