Names

When my father was naturalized back in the 1920's, the judge who approved his citizenship also decide that his name was too difficult for Americans to pronounce and asked, "What do your friends call you?"  When my dad replied that people at work called him "Smitty", the judged decided that his new name would be Smith.  Hence the moniker I have been saddled with my entire life.  I can't remember a time when I didn't wish that I still carried our original family name, as my aunts, uncles, and cousins all did.  Many times I asked my dad why, and he always said it was the judge's idea.  i have a sneaking suspicion that my mother had something to do with it, since every time I suggested changing it back, she became extremely angry.  
      Over the last few years, I have been toying on and off with going ahead and changing my name back to the original.  It seems that I would be creating a lot of work for myself in doing this, but I'm thinking that since I've absolutely abhorred my name all my life, I will feel totally different after I make the change.  Now that I'm getting on in years, I like the idea of being known by my original family name for the rest of my life.  My son tried this, and after a few months, he changed it back to Smith because he found it too difficult to deal with.  I'm not sure I would feel the same, since I've been saddled with Smith for a much longer time.  I might add that my father was from Ukraine, so our original name has a lot of consonants in it, but not as many as some.  I'm just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience or has any thoughts about this.