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I have so many names and pronunciations of names it’s hard to keep track. As I now work somewhere with lots of Spanish speakers, those folks get to call me by the Spanish version of my name (same spelling, sounds completely different). Monolingual English speakers have no idea who they’re referring to. I give my Mandarin name away only to people I interact with here in a somewhat intimate way (so, not to Chinese restaurants, where I only use ‘Ms Chen’, but yes at Chinese massage places, where I think if you’re poking me all over you can probably know my name).

However, my Mandarin name causes me a lot of anxiety, so any time someone uses it I think I’m about to be reprimanded for my homework.

Then there’s the Cantonese version of my name (same characters, pronounced differently) that I only use with monolingual Cantonese speakers like some tailors in Chinatown.

And if someone uses my passport name, as in Tan Teochewname Adrianna, I will assume that the ghosts of my grandparents have arisen, because nobody uses that name and I even took it out of my passport because I don’t want Anglophones to mess it up (and frankly too much trouble).

I’m considering a nom de plume just for writing fiction, but it won’t be hard since I’ll be able to mix and match from diff languages.