When we talk about being reborn and receiving a new name, we're dealing with a hot potato - emotionally and spiritually. There is a close tie between your name and your relationship with not only the state, but with mom and dad, all your blood relatives and even your friends. When you announce that God has given you a new name, they'll feel you're slapping them in the face. They'll feel you're rejecting them and all they have done for you.
"But I like my name. My parents would be horrified if I didn't carry on the family name." Sorry, but you must hate even mom and dad if they stand in the way of doing God's will.10
The Son has set you free and you are free indeed,11 but if you retain your state name, it is more difficult to separate unto holiness. You say you are a pilgrim and stranger in this land.12 Your citizenship is in Heaven.13 But the state has volumes of records showing you belong to them. Using the authority those records give them, they will continue pulling you back under their clutches. They'll persist in enforcing state obligations upon you. For in their eyes you belong to them - your name has been recorded.
It is painful, but if you are dying of the world, dying of the state, how can you continue using your state name? You must give it all up - everything you gained by the state or by mom and dad must be counted as dung.14 You're starting over on a brand new foundation - Jesus Christ. When you are willing to give up your state name, which is property, and lay a new foundation, it is difficult for the state to continue its close parental influence over you.
10 - Luke 14:26
11 - John 8:36
12 - Hebrews 11:13
13 - Philippians 3:20
14 - Philippians 3:8