Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Personal preference.  In recent decades, it's gotten more difficult to change the spelling of your surname, but if your name is Smith, and you want to pronounce it "Jones", that's entirely up to you.

Koch is an Ashkenazi Jewish name from Bavaria that traces back to the Latin term "coquu."  Pronouncing it "coke" or "kotch" or "coach" may cause less blushing than "cock", but translating it to English, you'd get Cook.