> Put in your new name that Google rejects because it doesn't match the name on your phone bill / credit card / whatever.
This is the part that confuses me -- granted, my Google account for work has my legal name on it, and I don't have to deal with a mismatch between that and the name I go by. But I have several throwaway Google accounts, and have never had my real name turn up on any of them. Is this purely because I don't associate them with my phone number, and don't use them for e.g. purchases in the Play Store or whatever? Are you saying that, if I did that with a throwaway account, I'd suddenly find that it had ceased to be a throwaway, and had my legal name and suchlike associated with it? Pardon my confusion -- it's just that I'm astonished at the idea of Google, or indeed anyone, pulling a trick like that. Is that actually what goes on?
This is the part that confuses me -- granted, my Google account for work has my legal name on it, and I don't have to deal with a mismatch between that and the name I go by. But I have several throwaway Google accounts, and have never had my real name turn up on any of them. Is this purely because I don't associate them with my phone number, and don't use them for e.g. purchases in the Play Store or whatever? Are you saying that, if I did that with a throwaway account, I'd suddenly find that it had ceased to be a throwaway, and had my legal name and suchlike associated with it? Pardon my confusion -- it's just that I'm astonished at the idea of Google, or indeed anyone, pulling a trick like that. Is that actually what goes on?