My name at birth was Jan Douwe Stokdijk. To the best of my knowledge I was named after my mother's uncle who in turn was named after his father. I have a vague memory that my first and middle name carry some significance. After we moved to Canada, when I was two, my name was translated, thankfully, to its English equivalent, John. I have no knowledge of the legal process involved.
My last name uses the traditional Dutch spelling. If anglicized it would be Stockdyke. As a young man I got tired of people mispronouncing my name. I proposed legally changing it to something simple like Stock but my wife would not hear of it. She liked the uniqueness of the name. Apparently it is also not a common name in my country of birth.
My name is properly pronounced as stock dike with a slight emphasis on the first syllable.