I asked my mom about my name and how my parents chose it. It turns out it was a pretty uneventful decision for them, my mom said my dad was super opinionated with baby names and it was the only one she suggested he would agree with.
This has made me want to actively start looking for a new name that I can really love that doesn’t frustrate me so much. My given name is [name_u]Mackenzie[/name_u] [name_f]Anne[/name_f]. Everyone misspells my first as McKenzie or [name_u]MacKenzie[/name_u]. EVERYONE. I’m not fond of the two capitalized letters, it makes me think it’s a last name like [name_m]McGregor[/name_m] or McCann. [name_u]Kenzie[/name_u] seems childish because it’s what I went by in elementary school and junior high. I would just go by my middle name but I have a friend named [name_f]Anne[/name_f] and people misspell her name as [name_f]Ann[/name_f] very often.*
The only name I definitely want to keep is my married name, which is [name_m]Packer[/name_m]. (People misspell this too so I spell it out loud after saying it so they don’t write [name_u]Parker[/name_u]) I may hyphenate my married name and maiden name, so either [name_m]Smith[/name_m]-[name_m]Packer[/name_m] or [name_m]Packer[/name_m]-[name_m]Smith[/name_m]?
What is a good way to start this process? Has anyone else done this? [name_m]How[/name_m] did you choose your new name?
I don’t have any experience changing my name, but if I were you I’d probably use [name_u]Kenzie[/name_u] if you don’t want to search too hard. It gives you the benefit of avoiding the spelling issues you see with [name_u]Mackenzie[/name_u] (though tbh I wouldn’t blame people for spelling it either of those ways because it was a last name originally), without losing connection to what your parents chose for you, or what people are used to calling you.
[name_u]Parker[/name_u]-[name_m]Smith[/name_m] has better flow than [name_m]Smith[/name_m]-[name_u]Parker[/name_u], in my opinion, so I’d go with [name_u]Kenzie[/name_u] [name_u]Parker[/name_u]-[name_m]Smith[/name_m].
If you do want to change your name completely, I would look at popularity lists from the year you were born and go with something mid-range popularity that has some kind of symbolism for you. Picking something that’s popular now feels a bit weird and awkward to me, personally.
Good luck in your journey to find a name that you feel suits you better 