The practice of changing your name is often associated with the entertainment industry and ambitious performers trying to find a catch-cry that sticks in the public imagination.
But there's a much more pragmatic, or desperate, depending on your outlook, reason for some changing their name - finding employment.
Historically, ethnic minorities have often changed their names to sound more Westernised, because quite frankly, some employers are racist and make judgments about strange sounding names.
Studies show people with ethnic sounding names are 40 per cent less likely to get a call back.
And if you think that doesn't happen in New Zealand, you're wrong.
Singapore migrant Terence King changed his name because he was having trouble finding employment in New Zealand after he moved.
"It was quite a challenge because the moment you put a Chinese name onto a resume, as an employer looking at the local needs you might have a bit of a question mark if this person's English is up to scratch," Mr King says.
"It took me a while to actually source out what was not right, and then I realised maybe it's because my name is quite misleading.
King said the decision to translate his Chinese name to an English version was a pragmatic one, and believes although it's a personal choice for each migrant, doing what makes you life easier may ultimately beth best course.
"It's such a hard thing to fight against the system. There's no point explaining and venting out your frustrating and saying 'this is my right'," King says.
"Because you do not know where you are in this scope of arrangement, it's so well established. So rather than working against it, I rather just squeezed myself and tried to find the flow, and move with the system.
"It's a personal choice but what I would say is, moving from on country to another is already a challenge, learning the house rules is also another challenge - so if you can do little things to make it easier, do it.
"Don't because of pride or because 'back home I do this and over here i expect the same way'. Don't expect that because you are only going to have to change the whole system."
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