--- title: The Man Who Changed His Name to Santa Claus description: A man from New York changed his name to Santa Claus to help convince kids he's the real deal. canonical: https://time.com/3631776/man-legally-named-santa-claus/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-12T17:14:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:15:16.796Z og:title: This Man Says He Legally Changed His Name to Santa Claus og:description: A man from New York changed his name to Santa Claus to help convince kids he's the real deal. og:url: https://time.com/3631776/man-legally-named-santa-claus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Man Says He Legally Changed His Name to Santa Claus twitter:description: A man from New York changed his name to Santa Claus to help convince kids he's the real deal. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Man Says He Legally Changed His Name to Santa Claus > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 12, 2014 5:14 PM UTC  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 12, 2014 5:14 PM UTC “Good afternoon, Santa speaking.” This is how Santa Claus of Valley Stream, New York, answers his phone, and that’s because he claims his legal name is actually Santa Claus. He claims he changed it two years ago in response to children who didn’t believe him. “Now I can pull out my driver’s license or my insurance card,” he [told _Fast Company_’s Elizabeth Segran](http://www.fastcompany.com/3039311/my-creative-life/santa-claus-is-real#1), “and it says right there: Santa Claus.” This Claus, who installs fire sprinkler systems when he’s not in character, has always felt a strong connection to the Christmas season. He began working weekends at Macy’s in 2006 but eventually tired of the rushed visits with children, who were often disappointed by the brevity of their lap-time. After four years, he decided to go freelance. Now he dons his Santa suit at parties and private homes, reports Segran, as well as for pro bono visits with terminally-ill children. Though the hours are long, and the beard tugs do hurt, Claus seems to find true meaning in the work. He says of the people with whom he interacts, “Their problems didn’t go away, but just for a moment, they forgot about their problems, they smiled, they became little kids again.” Read the full story [here](http://www.fastcompany.com/3039311/my-creative-life/santa-claus-is-real#1). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3631776/man-legally-named-santa-claus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3631776/man-legally-named-santa-claus/"},"headline":"This Man Says He Legally Changed His Name to Santa Claus","datePublished":"2014-12-12T17:14:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:15:16.796Z","description":"He may not hail from the North Pole, but this Santa Claus claims he's the real deal","url":"https://time.com/3631776/man-legally-named-santa-claus/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","christmas","santa claus","santa"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3631776/man-legally-named-santa-claus/","name":"This Man Says He Legally Changed His Name to Santa Claus"}}]}] ```