Since the change, 50-year-old Sharon New Zealand said everyone - including her five children - has been "absolutely positive" in their response.
Well, almost everyone.
"For the several thousand people I've spoken to since I changed it, there have been only two people on the phone who were negative about it.
"I think it's just jealousy on their part," she said.
She says her changed name has given her "endless enjoyment and hilarity" and she has experienced some unexpected benefits as a result.
"There have been a few times when I'm in a queue and a new lane is opened up and they say 'Miss New Zealand, we're ready for you now'.
"I have friends who invite me around for dinner parties and tell their guests Miss New Zealand will be there."
Although she is an artist and part-time writer, most of her time is now spent caring for her grandson Hunter, who has ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder.
His needs mean she has little opportunity to socialise, so she is active on Facebook, with her own personal page and running a group called Straight Up Poultry Chat NZ.
This group stems from another hobby: running a "retirement home" for old chickens.
"With the land and gardens I have, I decided to become an advocate for geriatric hens, and I asked for people to give their old hens.
"I promised I would never kill them, and I don't really have a need for the eggs, but I wanted to give them a home.
"In six weeks I got about 60 of them and some people gave me ducks as well."
She has a stall near her home to sell eggs but she donates most to the Methodist Social Services foodbank in Palmerston North.
"I can't really have a shop because I'm on a dangerous stretch of road.
"It costs me more than $100 to feed them every month but they're a great source of amusement to me."
Miss New Zealand says she loves her native land and is happy to be able to show that love in her own name.
"I love this country. I never want to go anywhere else."
