I did the self-regression/meditation I've described in detail a number of times, and part of that includes, after one leaves one's body and sense of having a body behind, floating up through the rainbow, color by color, and opening a door and going down a staircase. Two pictures or paintings are in the room one enters, people you knew before, with their names written below. That's how I found out my former surname and the names of a number of the people important to me; I've also found out some names through dreams. I didn't come to the name I believe was mine either of those ways though; I was reading a book by a woman who had helped her Jewish friends and resisted the Nazis in Germany, and one of her friends was named Oda. This woman was not the person I was, but nevertheless I felt very drawn to the name, and since it's been 11 years now, I think I'd be pretty disappointed if my name before weren't Oda, since I'm kind of very attached to it and have been thinking of myself, this person I was before, as Oda for so very long.