Singer and actress Miley Ray Cyrus recently joined a growing list of people to formally change their names. She dropped her birth name of Destiny Hope.

Steve Kreuscher said he is tired of attacks on religion in America.

So recently he decided to take a stand. Next month, the 57-year-old Zion, Ill., man will go to court to legally change his name to “In God We Trust.”

“The phrase ‘In God We Trust’ is like an endangered species, like the bald eagle,” said Kreuscher, a school bus driver and artist. “By changing my name to In God We Trust, it is like I am taking one last bald eagle, for myself and for my family, and securing it as a permanent part of our heritage.”

Kreuscher has joined a growing list of people who are changing their names, some of them to unusual phrases in an effort to make a statement. Celebrities have long changed their names, often to enhance or to revise their image.

In 1993, performer Prince changed his name to a symbol and years later back again. Earlier this year, 15-year-old singer Miley Ray Cyrus officially dropped her birth name, Destiny Hope.

Over the last decade, more and more ordinary people have taken that step.

Robert Rion, of Mundelein, Ill., changed his name to Santa Claus in 1997 after decades of playing the role. Claus, who died in 2003, also looked the part, weighing 300 pounds and growing a long white beard.

Chris Garnett, a youth outreach worker for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, changed his name to Kentucky Fried Cruelty.com in 2005 to protest alleged mistreatment of chickens by the fast-food chain. A Missouri man, Andrew Wilson, changed his name to They. Terri Iligan, of Tennessee, auctioned her name on eBay. A casino paid her $15,199 to change it to GoldenPalace .com.

Brian Liu, founder of Legal zoom.com, a popular online legal site, said his company has seen a 32 percent increase in name changes this year compared to 2007. Women outnumber men, 60 percent to 40 percent, he said, and the largest age group is 21 to 35.

A recent trend, he said, has been people opting for simpler names.

“It has to do with a lot of Eastern Europeans and Slavic names that are sometimes very long and difficult to pronounce,” said Liu, whose firm prepares the paperwork for the petitioner to file in court.

‘My proposed name fits me better’

“But the main reason is ‘My proposed name fits me better.’ People don’t really need a good reason. It is one of the great things about America. We allow people to be who they want to be. If they want to start life over with a new name, they can do that.”

In most states, the filing fee runs from $150 to $350 to petition a court to approve a name change.

The petition likely will be denied if fraud is suspected, or if a person is trying to adopt the name of a famous person or a name that is considered offensive.

Fourteen years ago at the age of 17, Peter Eastman, who grew up in Carpinteria, Calif., decided to change his name to Trout Fishing in America. He was influenced by the Richard Brautigan novel of the same name. But Trout had a more personal reason for changing his name.

For years, he said, he and his family had worked on restoring an old boat, which he wanted to name Trout Fishing in America. After years of work, they discovered dry rot in the wooden keel, so they abandoned the project. But he refused to abandon the name.

In ‘honor’ of the boat

“I was being flippant as a teenager and decided it would be interesting to graduate as Trout Fishing in America in memory of the boat,” said Trout, now 31.

“The school, of course, did not like it. But my parents were OK with it. So I used money my father gave me as a graduation present to pay the $182 court fees.”

Trout America, the shortened version he now uses, said he has no regrets. He graduated from college and recently returned from Japan, where he spent three years teaching English. The name would have caused more difficulty, he said, had he decided to enter the corporate world.

“Usually when people meet me, they say, ‘Well, that’s pretty interesting,’” he said. “But for me, the name change is about being able to choose. The important thing is not the name itself, but as I go through life, just being aware that I have a choice in whatever I want to do.”

Just call me …

• Jesus Christ, formerly Jose Luis Espinal, of Manhattan.

• Byron (Low Tax) Looper, formerly Byron Looper, a Tennessee politician.

• DotComGuy, formerly Mitch Maddox, a computer systems manager who spent a year in his Dallas home using the Internet to order food and other necessities. (He later went back to Mitch Maddox.)

• Zachary Zzzzzzzzzra, formerly Bill Holland, a San Francisco painting contractor who wanted to be the last name in the phone book.