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Complementary to your own suggestions and the ones in the other answers, you could consider creating an ORCID (or of course any other unique researcher/author ID) and using it in all publications. The benefits here:

• By adding a unique identifier to your name, the name collisions can be resolved.


• If your change your name at a certain point (e.g., if you decide to change your name as you suggested in the question), the ID will remain the same. Therefore, you even might be able to postpone the decision whether to change your name.


• Since you mention online identity and SEO: At least ORCID comes with a profile web site (I am not familiar with other ID systems), where you can add your personal information and even maintain a list of your publications. Usually, a link to this profile is added to the publication, so readers can follow it. As to search engine optimization, I am not expert here but I would guess that the outcome of those algorithms improves if there is a unique ID that groups your contributions together.

Of course, all those ID systems are quite recent and might not be accepted (yet) by the journals and/or researchers in your field. Nevertheless, I would give it a try since it comes at no cost (which I presume won't be the case for changing legal documents).

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...

A former colleague has effectively swapped their middle and family names for publishing purposes (I believe their given middle name is also in some way inherited). The now surname is (for native English-speakers) simpler and more natural to spell and pronounce than the legal one, and they use the initial of the legal surname as a middle initial. The new name is simultaneously academically unique and intuitive for people from many cultures (working in English).

Applying this to Dorothy Hodgkin as an example would give Dorothy H.Crowfoot.

This is a slightly bigger change than the one you propose, and so far seems to work well.

Devil's advocate here.

I personally consider it a worthwhile idea, especially if you could add your middle name somewhere (as opposed to using a different last name). It would be a minor change in publications (just adding one letter), and it would still be easy to see how it refers to you.

However, this could be an issue for any publications you published before, and as you mentioned, degrees and enrollment, that you probably cannot change easily without legal proof (depending on your country).

Look at chinese researchers though, a lot of them have identical first name and last name, and they still end up publishing with these names. I see several reasons not to change the name: first, because they are identified usually by the academy they work in, which pretty much always goes with the author's name on a paper. Second, when you apply somewhere, or contact someone, if they are interested to look into you, they can make the effort to add one extra word and find you, for example by specifying your field of expertise, or again, your academy. For other people who happened to search for you on their own, the same answer is pretty much the same. If they look for you, they can make that extra effort (and if they work/look a lot into your field, their google history may be biased and will most likely already gets your result ahead).

One option you may have is changing your name legally. This would avoid some of the complications you see. This is the time to do it, before you graduate and have a diploma under the current name.

As far as I know, the only reason to avoid using another name legally is that you can, in some circumstances be accused of fraud, but those circumstances are not the ones here since you don't have a fraudulent purpose.

I have something of a similar problem. I don't carry my birth name, for complicated reasons, but wish that I did. But once I graduated college it always seemed too late to change.

However, if you simply use a pseudonym, it will be learned sooner or later. That might complicate things or not, so think about that. If people start referring to you under both names interchangeably, others will be confused. You will eventually want a passport if you don't already have one. For this you need to use your legal name, and so, when you travel to international conferences, it will normally be under that name (a minor obstacle, of course).

And maybe some other famous athlete or academic will come along with your newly chosen name in any case. I share names with both famous athletes and academics, by the way. It has never been an issue, but in my case the fields of study are different. I've only ever gotten one email that should have gone to the other academic. A bit humorous, that.

Finally, your difficulty in starting out a career will be determined by far more fundamental things, I predict. As such, there is probably little downside in just leaving it as it is, using your current name.

These kinds of variants are very common with first and middle names, but I've never seen it with a last name. For example someone with legal name Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson might easily publish under:

• Charles Dodgeson


• Charles L. Dodgeson


• Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson


• C. Lutwidge Dodgeson


• C. L. Dodgeson (I don't know anyone who does this, but it would probably be fine)


• Chase Dodgeson (in the case where the person goes by Chase)


• Lutwidge Dodgeson (in the case where the person goes by their middle name)


• Chase L. Dodgeson


• C. Larry Dodgeson


• ...

Maybe such a variant works for you. But normally, changes from First Middle Last are toward how one introduces oneself in conversation, not away.

As others have said, regardless of how you publish, IT systems and degrees will always contain your legal name. Having these be different is normal and fine as in the "Chase Dodgeson" example. The main sources of friction I see would be

1. When applying for jobs, it can confuse people or possibly someone will disbelieve these are your publications (although if they are listed on your website which contains both your legal name and pseudonym, hopefully it's okay).




2. People may be confused when meeting you in person or hearing about you third-hand, then they go to look for your publications. Every such interaction now needs some additional explanation, or maybe just a good explanatory sentence prominently on your website.

If you keep your last name unchanged, both of these are much easier or not existent at all. I think the difficulties are surmountable, but I'd definitely consider all your other options first. One is to legally change your middle name and use a variant with the middle initial or the full middle name.