Is Lindsay better off without the 'Lohan'?

Oprah, Beyonce, Cher... Lindsay? To further separate herself from her troubled father — who was charged this week with domestic violence against his girlfriend — tabloid favorite Lindsay Lohan is planning to shorten her name. "Lindsay is dropping the 'Lohan' and just going by Lindsay," her mother, Dina Lohan, told Rob Shuter at PopEater. The actress' mother and sister, meanwhile, will take the surname "Sullivan," Dina's maiden name. A family friend said that excising "Lohan" is "a way for them all to start over. No one in the family wants anything to do with Lindsay's father anymore, and that includes sharing a last name." Predictably, Michael Lohan is not happy with his daughter's decision. But does it make any sense for, well, Lindsay?

This is a terrible move: "Lindsay Lohan has packed a lot of mistakes into her 24 years," says Jemima Lewis at The Telegraph, but now "she has managed to come up with her most half-baked idea yet." If you want to be known by your first name only, you need two things: First, a very distinctive name ("Nice work, Oprah, Beyoncé, Britney, Nigella and Madonna"); second, a sufficient level of stardom that "there is no possible room for doubt" about which Lindsay you are. "Without wishing to be unkind," a starring role in 2005’s Herbie: Fully Loaded isn’t going to cut the mustard.

"Lindsay Lohan and the perils of name-dropping"

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Yes, the abundance of Lindsays is a big problem: "As one of the hundreds of thousands of 'Lindsays' on the planet," I'm urging the starlet to rethink this plan, says Lindsay Mannering at The Stir. With her offscreen antics, Lohan has "disgraced our fun and light-hearted 1980s name long enough — and now she has the balls to want to make it all her own." That can't and won't happen — in fact, as of now, "she been officially kicked out of the 'Lindsay with an A' club."

"Lindsay Lohan isn't the only Lindsay in town"

Give her a break: It's perfectly understandable that Lindsay would want to drop her last name to help put her troubled past behind her, says Alicia Sparks at Psych Central. Granted, this is "just one step," and she still has a felony grand theft auto charge to contend with before she can really exorcise her demons. But, hey, it's a start.

"Lindsay Lohan drops last name, seeks fresh start"