[anotheryou]

don't worry, delete what you can, create new content that flushes the old to page 2 of Google, be honest about having a different past if confronted (people that can't accept that are not worth your time anyways)

enjoy reinventing yourself!

I'd only be worried if you e.g. would do political journalism on somewhat Muslim related topics. in that case a full disclosure would be better or it might be used against you.

as for disliking your name: maybe you can find an additional nickname. I'd think twice about throwing out your "real name". I hope your relationship to your origin will relax over time. over time you hopefully can fully identify yourself with who you became and who you are and the past doesn't even matter so much anymore and than there is no reason to cut any ties anymore either.

[throwaway250618]

I do have a feeling this might be an overreaction of sorts, so yes, you're probably right and my relationship to the origin will relax over time.

Another issue is hidden discrimination or just stereotypes. Continuing with the Muslim analogy, imagine a caucasian non-religious western dude named Muhammad with a weird last name that doesn't sound like anything familiar anywhere on the planet except for one country. This is something I had to live with. When people hear my full name, they usually think of a certain culture and religion, and it has nothing to do with neither me nor my appearance.

[anotheryou]

I'm a white western male I really shouldn't give any advice on the problems with racism...

I of course hope it would be OK to be honest and simply ignore those who are racist, but maybe being pragmatic the sad truth is that hiding it avoids racist prejudices... Still a nickname might work fine for anything but official things like applications.