hi i'll be living in Seoul soon and converting my English name to Hangul has become hell.

My given name is Fennec which if converted to hangul, 팬낵, sounds like 'panic' to my american ears and i hate it. i know panic is 패닉 but the way i pronounce my name is more like Feh-nik, so it worries me i'll sound ridiculous even with the heavier 'F' english sound.

My last name cut short to one syllable is Ri / 리 and i know 리 is a north korean surname. im not sure if that will catch attention or flak as i know some defectors from NK deliberately changed their surnames from 리 to 이 once in SK. Also i prefer Lee to Ri phonetically.

I want to ask native/fluent korean speakers who genuinely know the local culture if i should scrap 리펜넥 and just choose something else

oh and my nick name would be pen (i prefer the shorter version in every day life) like yes the writing utensil 팬. “팬이” would be even worse lol.

i dont mind it if its easily accepted and worked around but i dont want to commit if its the mess i think it might be. if its awkward and sounds like a bad joke id rather skip if i have to constantly explain because my korean still needs much improvement.

any help so very much appreciated! im there in a few weeks.