If you are just graduating from college, you should seriously consider creating a professional name for yourself which is different from your legal name. It would be harder for someone to steal your identity because he would not be able to connect the information available online under your name with your social security number, credit card number, your relatives, and other personal information. Your professional name would provide a layer of security. Also, before you go into any profession, you would be able to make sure that there is nobody else with the same name doing the same thing. In fact, it would probably be better to start using your professional name in college, so that you would be able to retain the connections you make.
