what happens when you change your name

Before you even began to get judgmental - here is my situation, which might resound with you (or not).

Zhang Lianxin and Chong Yang from A Beauty in Troubled Times 

• China-born and raised up in an English-speaking country
• then moved to a city with few minorities; mostly caucasian population
• "can you pronounce that name again?" or "is it this or that" or "am I saying it right" is a common occurrence and it might or might not drive you crazy after hearing it the nth time.
• my parents had let me change my own name, which is probably a bad move on their part simply because I was too young and thought names like Lola were cool names for girls

To preface this story, I have never sought to change my given name which would truly alter my identity; instead, I used nicknames in place of my true name. This should resounding with people of Asian descent and have lived in an English-speaking country. Thee first English name I chose was a mistake.
I found it in the Chinese-English dictionary whilst browsing it with my father. But hey, what can you do?

I was six years old at the time. 

To be fair, the name was a proper English name, but it was actually a nickname in itself. Moreover, it was a different spelling - an unusual spelling. Also, for some reason, nobody I knew went by that name. 

My father moved the family to another city when I turned twelve years old. 

Upon reaching the brand-new environment, and needing a new start, I chose another nickname to go by. This one, I thought, was going to be okay (and not get me teased). But why....? I ended up choosing another nickname of a name. I simply want to smack myself in the face now. It was a character from a movie I had watched and the name was not only an unusual spelling.... but to make things worse, as I grew older, I realised even using my given name was better than that fabricated nickname!

Going by my given name... I could be mistaken for an international Asian student (whom are notoriously disliked for one reason or another, at least at my school), it is also a gender neutral name -_-

Going by my current name.... it is difficult to spell, confusing to pronounce, Example: let's say my name is Taier. I go by Ramiag. Do you see how that complicate things? You go by an English nickname, generally, to make things easier for English-speakers to pronounce, not to make it more confusing. 

The lesson: if your name is Asian (and difficult to say) and you need to 'go by' an English name, choose a common one. Crystal, Claire, Ashley, Grace, you get the point. Otherwise, you might regret it later. It is easier to get new people you meet to call you by a preferred name than to convince people you know to change the way they address you.
* all in all, I guess this is more rant than a story, but I really need to get it off my shoulders today