She just got sick of telling people her name was Simone (must have sounded exotic in the 90s) and started telling them it was Fred instead.
But being students, people had all sorts of wacky names you never questioned. My mate was seeing a lass called Seeb ffs.
To be fair, Fred could be an abbreviation for Alfreda, Winifred, Frederique, Frederica etc. Not that any of them are particularly common names.