Years before he decided to study law, Atticus Finch had the name for it.

Finch, a first-year student at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, is truly named Atticus Finch, after the lawyer in Harper Lee's bestseller "To Kill a Mockingbird." With his parents' approval, Finch went to court at age 8 to change his given name of Angus Finch to Atticus Finch.

Finch, a recent graduate of Texas State University in San Marcos, said he read the novel at age 7, which turned out to be a fortuitous decision because he had issues with his given name of Angus.