Had a look on whitepages.com -- to my dismay, my old name is still in there. In fact, it's in there twice: once at my current address, and once more at the address I moved out of six years ago. 

My new name is in there too, and I'm listed as cohabiting with my old name. Gee, it's getting crowded in here.

The same is true at 411.com and phonenumber.com.

Anywho.com and switchboard.com also have my old name in there twice, at the old address from 6 years ago as well as the current one. But they don't have my new name at all (the phone is listed in my wife's name).

I legally changed my name a year and a half ago, and one of the name-change letters I sent then was to the phone company. But they ignored my request and continued to print my old name, not my new name, the past two years. And the various online white pages sites seem unwilling to discard old, obsolete data.

I kept the same last name, so if you search for me just using my surname, the old name pops up with my new name--or instead of it. In the printed White Pages, my old name is still there instead of my new name. Is there any way I'll ever be able to banish that hated old name of mine from the world?

I don't have any help for you except that in my experience the phone companies are the worst.  I had to jump through hoops for over a year to have my dead wife delisted.   I think the web sites like anywho feed off the phone companies' information, but it takes a long time to trickle through.  At some point you just have to be philosophical about it and get on with your life.

Here's a method that should work: Call up the phone company and say you're canceling your service. They'll immediately come back with options to keep you and probably take you more seriously. Then tell them you just want them to finally change your name in the directory. A lot of people are disconnecting their phone lines these days. That gets your out of the directory completely (which to me, isn't a bad thing). I've got an IP phone on a cable modem and a cell, so I'm not listed anymore.

My town has 38000 people and 54000 on the voter roles. Even death will not change government records.

Well, I don't use a land line, only a cell phone for many years and I don't exist on 411 (past or present).  Gee maybe thats why no one calls me ;-).  Co cancel the land line use the cell for a few months and then get a new land line if you need one.

Beni

If your number is the same, Call and ask to have unlisted and unpublished.  You will be charged a monthly fee, but it will go bye bye.  However it means you will also be unlisted. Of course you could always get a new one if you cancel the original first.

Also see if your old name and your proper  name are listed as being on both.  If it is, see if you can get it removed. I used the old 'adding my sister' when dealing with companies.  Then later I made 'her' primary, waited a week and deleted my 'brother'.  And I now have a cell only.

Janet

My wife is the primary on this phone account... I'm not sure how or when she arranged that... so making any changes will depend on her good offices? Hmm. We're getting ready to split up. So if I don't persuade her to remove the old name, she could choose to keep it there for good? I'd better see to this while I still have a chance.

some of the on-line white page services will allow ya to un-list yourself. I have been trying to do that. Have not personally had a land line for 5 years and still I'm listed online.

That isn't what I meant. I wanted to keep my wife's listing but get my name out of it. So you're saying that isn't possible without making the whole thing unlisted?

What if I want my new name listed but the old one deleted?

Delist it all together. Then have you and your wife listed separately 
Sorry, I was in a bit of a mood earlier 

I imagine that getting in is easy, and worth money to the company to do it, getting out is hard, and since there is no money in it, why would they bother?  Have you tried to pay them to take you out?

Quote from: Hypatia on April 16, 2009, 11:59:56 PM
That isn't what I meant. I wanted to keep my wife's listing but get my name out of it. So you're saying that isn't possible without making the whole thing unlisted?

What if I want my new name listed but the old one deleted?

For the landline listing, I just asked that my wife's name to be removed from the listing.  They did that without a problem.  I haven't tried to get them to change my name yet. 

Where I ran into the problem was the cell account, which was in my wife's name.  It took several trips and lots of documentation to show that she was, indeed, dead and it would be all right for me to take over the account.  The caller ID still comes up showing her name, though.