I have a name that my parents made up by smashing together a bunch of family member's names. It's caused me so much grief and frustration throughout my life that I'm finally fed up and want to change it. I live every day in fear that someone will see my name in the wild and post about it on here (only slightly joking about this). I've thought about just changing it professionally and socially but my company won't update my contact information unless I legally change it as well so now I'm really considering it.
My question is, to those that have changed your name legally, have you told your parents? How did they react? My parents adore my name and I'm sure that they'd see it as almost a betrayal since they chose it to honor their relatives. I'm aware that I don't have to like and accept this gift that they've given me, but I am close to them and really don't want to upset them.
I don't currently have a name picked out for myself and I won't be sharing my current name as it will immediately identify me since I'm the only one *lucky* enough to have it.
