From Sergei to Simon, what's in a name?

LONDON - For new immigrants to Britain, adapting to the country isn't just about learning the language or getting used to the rain - it's increasingly about changing their names.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have moved to the United Kingdom to work in recent years, some with exotic names that are 13 letters long, making the desire for something simpler to pronounce and write on forms commonplace.

So commonplace in fact that Britain's Deed Poll Service, which allows people to legally change their name for as little as $70 (36 pounds), has seen a huge surge in business - 40,000 name changes were made last year, up 20 percent from 2006.

"We've got a big influx of migrants coming into this country, particularly from Eastern Europe," said Janet Chadwick, director of The Name Change Company, which has seen business boom in the past two years.

"We've seen quite a lot of name changes of people trying to anglicise their name because they have names which are very unpronounceable to the British tongue."

And when it comes to job applications, some believe that an unpronounceable name will work against them, Chadwick said.

Common changes include the Polish Aleksander to Alexander and Marta to Martha.

Immigrants from Asia and the Middle East have also picked up the trend, with Guang sometimes becoming Edward, Mohammed Michael and Karim Kevin.

Mike Barratt, the chief executive of the Deed Poll Service, says the trend took off after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when people with Muslim names began changing them to avoid discrimination.

"People have been to the States and have had problems getting in because of immigration - because they had an Arabic sounding name," he said.

"Of course, you've got a lot of people who are just changing their names to make it easier for the average person over here to pronounce ... just to make life easier."

With the ability to make the name changes over the Internet, it's quick and easy for anyone to get in on the game.

Plenty of Britons who don't like what their parents called them, or want a moniker that's more original, have switched as well. Last year Joel Whittle became Big Crazy Lester.

The only applications that are rejected are those that would change someone's appellation to a number, something blasphemous or a title they don't actually have, such as Lord or Lady.

But that doesn't mean people can't try to improve their standing in other ways, perhaps by choosing a military rank.

"If someone wanted to be Captain Starpower ... we would probably do that," Barratt said.