What the Fungi Remember ~ The Name Change Office
Seattle Municipal Court
February 2024
Brian Vurrmok, 34, holds form PC-510: Petition for Name Change. Line 4 asks for "reason."
He writes: "The old name doesn't fit anymore."
Crosses it out.
Writes: "Gender transition."
Crosses it out.
Writes: "Personal."
---
The Hearing
JUDGE MARTINEZ: Mr. Vurrmok, you're requesting to change your legal name to... "Brrd Roots"?
BRIAN: Yes.
JUDGE: That's B-R-R-D?
BRIAN: Yes.
JUDGE: And Roots is the surname?
BRIAN: It's... both. Together. First and last.
JUDGE: I need a first name and a surname for the record.
BRIAN: Can't it just be one thing?
JUDGE: No.
---
The Explanation
JUDGE: Why this particular name?
BRIAN: My grandmother had dementia. Near the end, she kept saying "brrd" when she was cold. But also when she recognized me. Like the two things were connected—feeling cold and knowing who I was.
JUDGE: And Roots?
BRIAN: She was a botanist. Before. She studied mycorrhizal networks. How fungi connect trees underground. She said everything was connected through roots we couldn't see.
JUDGE: Mr. Vurrmok, are you changing your name to honor your grandmother?
BRIAN: I'm changing it because Brian Vurrmok was someone else's idea of who I should be.
---
The Opposition
BRIAN'S FATHER, PAVEL VURRMOK, 67, stands.
PAVEL: Your Honor, I object.
JUDGE: Sir, you can't object to an adult's name change.
PAVEL: Vurrmok means something. Four generations in America. My father changed it from Vurmokovsky at Ellis Island.
BRIAN: He was forced to change it.
PAVEL: He chose to fit in.
BRIAN: Exactly.
---
The Recess
In the hallway, Brian's sister THALINE waits.
THALINE: Dad's crying in the bathroom.
BRIAN: Good.
THALINE: That's cruel.
BRIAN: He never cried when grandma forgot our names. Only upset now that I'm choosing to forget his.
THALINE: It's not the same.
BRIAN: Isn't it? She lost her names to disease. I'm losing mine to finally feel real.
---
The Memory
THALINE: Remember what grandma said about fungal networks?
BRIAN: That they remember everything.
THALINE: She said even when the tree dies, the fungi remember its location. Feed new seedlings in the same spot.
BRIAN: So?
THALINE: Maybe keeping Vurrmok would be like... the fungi. Carrying forward what was good.
BRIAN: What if nothing was good?
THALINE: My name was good. When you first said it. "Baby Thaline." You were three.
Brian looks away.
---
Back in Court
JUDGE: Mr. Vurrmok, I've reviewed your petition. The name Brrd is unusual but not prohibited. However, I need to ask—is this name change an attempt to avoid debts or legal obligations?
BRIAN: No.
JUDGE: Are you changing your name for fraudulent purposes?
BRIAN: No.
JUDGE: Then explain to me, in plain language, why Brrd Roots?
---
The Truth
BRIAN: I used to work at the UW herbarium. With my grandmother. Before she got sick. We catalogued fungal specimens. She taught me their Latin names. Armillaria ostoyae. Rhizopogon villosulus.
JUDGE: Mr. Vurrmok—
BRIAN: She said Latin names were maps. Every name told you where something came from, what it was related to, how it survived. But common names—honey mushroom, fuzzy truffle—those told you how they felt. What they meant to people.
JUDGE: And Brrd Roots?
BRIAN: It's my common name. How I feel. Not where I came from.
---
The Father Speaks
PAVEL: Your Honor, may I say something?
JUDGE: Briefly.
PAVEL: My mother—Brian's grandmother—she named him. In the hospital. I wanted Peter, but she insisted on Brian. Said it meant "strong." She was already forgetting things then. Small things. But she remembered the meaning of names.
BRIAN: She remembered meanings. Not the names themselves.
PAVEL: The last time she recognized me, she called me "the boy who loves trees." Not Pavel. Not son. But she knew me.
Pause.
PAVEL: If she was here, what would she call you?
BRIAN: Brrd.
---
The Decision
JUDGE: The court recognizes that names carry weight—cultural, familial, personal. They're how we're known and how we know ourselves.
BRIAN: Yes.
JUDGE: The legal standard isn't about making families happy. It's about your right to self-determination.
PAVEL: Your Honor—
JUDGE: Sir, your son is making a choice your father made at Ellis Island. To become who he needed to be in that moment.
PAVEL: My father had no choice.
JUDGE: Neither does your son. Not if he wants to survive as himself.
---
The Ruling
JUDGE: The petition is granted. The court orders that Brian Pavel Vurrmok shall now be known as Brrd Roots.
BRIAN: First name Brrd, last name Roots?
JUDGE: That's what the system requires.
BRIAN: Okay.
JUDGE: The clerk will prepare the decree. You'll receive certified copies in two weeks.
---
After
Outside the courthouse. Rain.
PAVEL: Your grandmother's buried under Pavel Vurrmok's grandson.
BRRD: She's buried under the Douglas firs she studied. The ones she could name in five languages.
PAVEL: I don't know how to introduce you now.
BRRD: As your child. That hasn't changed.
THALINE: Dad, it's just a name.
PAVEL: Names are never just names. Your grandmother taught me that.
BRRD: She also taught us that fungi rename themselves constantly. Every spore that lands becomes something new.
PAVEL: But connected to the same network.
BRRD: Yeah. Connected.
Pavel extends his hand. Brrd takes it.
PAVEL: Brrd Roots. It'll take practice.
BRRD: Everything does.
They stand in the rain. Three people connected by DNA and disagreement, by love and loss, by names kept and names released.
Underground, the mycelial network continues. Unnamed. Unbroken.
End
