Making a Name for Myself

By the time you read this, my name change will be official. I will no longer be Mandy Krickhahn, I will be Mandy Wester. 

Ms. Wester if you’re nasty......sorry, just couldn’t resist the Janet Jackson quote 😉

I've decided to take my grandma's maiden name, Wester, and while there is a lot of meaning behind that decision (which I'll get into), there's also the reality of changing your name as an adult who owns businesses.

I'm fully aware that updating everything is going to be a tedious process. Filing through the court is one step, but then there are the bank accounts, taxes, business records, emails, websites, social media, insurance, legal documents, and probably a hundred random accounts I won't remember until I'm standing somewhere annoyed because my name doesn't match.

Even though all of this will honestly be a huge pain in the ass to update, choosing this name means a lot to me. It's about honoring my grandma, the life I'm building, and the family history I want to carry forward.

Changing my name may not seem like a big deal from the outside, but it means a lot to me. It’s not just updating paperwork or changing an email signature. It’s about choosing a name that feels connected to who I am, the life I’m building, and the family history I want to carry forward.

I chose my grandmother’s maiden name, Wester, as a way to honor a strong, badass woman whose name was left behind. My grandma was a German nurse during WWII where she met my grandfather who was an American soldier. They fell in love, got married, she took his last name, moved to the United States with him and built a life and family here. But she was never known as Christine Wester here, that name stayed behind in Germany.

Once I started considering changing my last name after my divorce, I began thinking about how names get passed down through families, and how often women's names get lost along the way. There are so many women who have spent their lives building families, supporting the people around them, and contributing so much to the lives we have today, but their own names and stories aren't always carried forward. I love that I have the opportunity to bring my grandma's name back and make it part of my own story.

I’ve had different names throughout my life, and each one has been a different version of me. When my dad adopted me, my name changed, and it changed again when I got married. This time feels different because, for the first time, I’m choosing a name for myself, one that honors where I come from and feels right for where I am in my life today.

Over the last several years, between going through a divorce and building my businesses, I’ve had to keep betting on myself without knowing how things would turn out. I’ve walked into rooms where I had to prove myself, made some really hard decisions, and learned a lot about what I want out of life and what I’m no longer willing to compromise on. I’ve also learned that being liked isn't the same as being respected, that my peace matters, and that it’s okay to change my mind about what I want my life to look like as I grow.

To be completely honest, I'm still figuring a lot of it out. I still second-guess myself and have moments where I wonder if I'm doing too much, changing too much, or making things harder than they need to be. But even when I'm unsure, I know myself better and trust my own judgment more than I used to, and to me (and my therapist), that's huge growth. 

For me, this name represents all the different versions of myself along the way. The younger me who was still figuring out where she belonged, the woman who got married and built a life she thought would look a certain way, and the person who eventually had to figure out what she wanted that life to look like instead. It also represents the version of me who took a chance on building The Collective, learned to stand up for herself, and is still growing and figuring things out as she goes.

And of course, it carries my grandmother, a woman whose name deserves to be more than a piece of family history that faded with time. She came to America and built a life under a different name, and now I get to bring Wester back and make it part of mine. I'm genuinely excited to see her name on the contracts I sign, our websites, programs, articles, market materials, and all the things I've worked so hard to build and am proud of. Even if it's just for the rest of my lifetime, it means a lot to me that Christine Wester's name gets to have a place here too.

I’m still not perfect and I’m still figuring things out, but I’ve come a long way, and I’m excited to see what this next part of my life looks like as Mandy Wester.