In all honesty, I kind of know it’s nuts.

It will mean having to change my business name, website, email, Instagram, packaging, plus 12,854 other items that have had my name on them.

But I have to do it.

It’s been following me around in my head for a few years plus I really want to write a book but I decided that I can’t write a book with the surname “Jacquot”.

That surname belonged to my mother’s third husband (now divorced), a French dude she married when I was 14 and the surname was just slapped onto me. I’ve had it all these years because I never questioned it. Then as an adult I kind of liked it, people thought it was exotic to have a Polish first name and a French surname.

But as I get older, I can feel that it no longer fits. I actually just don’t want it. It’s not who I am, it’s not part of me.

So I’ll be going back to my maiden name. My own father’s surname.

Now just lower your expectations about my new name. It ain’t exactly glamorous. It’s a fairly common surname in Poland and in fact when I was at school, kids used to laugh at it.

OK I’ll put you out of your misery so you don’t have to skim read looking for what my new name is going to be. It’s Kozioł. The name I was born with is Kasia Kozioł.

If you type “Kozioł” into Google translate it will tell you that it means goat. Literally it means goat. That’s why the school kids made fun of me! Haha!

This change is very meaningful to me because it means being authentically myself.

For years i felt that my “Jacquot” surname was dragging itself behind me like an old coat that no longer fitted but I kept it because I was used to it.

Interestingly there was a period of about ten years when I wasn’t even called Kasia!

I was called Kate! Add the surname of my mother’s husband, and I was Kate Jacquot. Nothing like the name I was born with of Kasia Kozioł.

Crazy, but do you know why I was called Kate?

Brace yourself…

Back in 1983 when my mum and I arrived in Australia as new non English speaking immigrants, I was sent to school very soon after we arrived. There, the head teacher (I’m sure she meant well) decided that my real name is too difficult to pronounce so it should be anglicised.

Now wait, she wasn’t actually referring to the name Kasia, she was referring to my formal name of Katarzyna (the Polish equivalent of Katherine) which was on my passport. You see Kasia, is a shortening of Katarzyna the way Kate can be a shortening of Katherine.

And so, she changed my name on the school enrolment to Katherine, the teachers started calling me Kate and since I didn’t speak any English I just sat there like a mute.

Three years later my mum marries Mr Jacquot and boom, there is no trace of who I was when I left Poland. I became Kate Jacquot.

If my Polish father ever tried to find me in Australia he would have failed.

It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties when a Polish friend said to me: “Why don’t you use your Polish name of Kasia?”

I was gobsmacked. I didn’t know what to answer. There was no reason for me to continue being called Kate, but I also grew up without a lot of opportunities to make my own choices. So it wasn’t something I practiced naturally as an adult.

I’m on a mission to live an authentic and uncomplicated life.

Going back to my original surname is a big part of that. In a way it’s symbolic, it only has meaning to me, but the meaning for me is huge.

That just leaves the slightly monumental task of changing over everything in my business. Argh!! I know it will be a monstrous job, but it is worth it and I can’t wait to sign my name as

Kasia Kozioł

I’m changing my name