I'm curious... which one of you in the couple will change your last name, and why?

(I don't know if all those options exist in other states, but I've read here that they do in New York. )

David and I have spoken about this and have agreed.... I have two daughters and will not change my name unless and until they do. Makes it too awkward when filling out forms, etc. Their dad has remarried, so her name would match theirs and mine wouldn't? No thanks.

I am established in my career of 18 yrs with this name, so I'm keeping it. But I welcome and would be proud to be referred to as "Mr and Mrs David XX"... it's not a women's lib thing or anything like that.

Jen

I changed my last name to his.

My fiance and I aren't sure yet and have plenty of time left to think about it. We do agree that we'll wait until the religious wedding, which will be after the civil marriage, to change our last names.

It's not that I wouldn't be proud to have his name, it's just that... well... the first 3 letters of his last name are "A s s" try spelling THAT on the phone. My last name means "strange" in Italian, and I actually sort of like having my name translate as "strange angel"... though I do wonder what my parents were thinking when they made that combination.

I don't want the first three letters of my last name to be "a s s" and we're sorta uncomfortable about the idea of him taking my last name because that just feels weird... so we're thinking about making a combination of our two names. The main thing pushing us towards that idea, though, is that we like how it would symbolize our new beginning and new start. There have been major, major problems in both of our families, and naturally we're a bit worried of turning out like that too... neither of us want to continue it, to carry it on like we'd carry that family's name. But if we combine our names to make a totally new one, it'd be a symbol of how we're joining together on our new life together and that we won't necessarily have to turn out like the rest of our families did.

Anywho, we're still not sure what we'll do... we'll see.

I'll change. My last name (german) is too complicated to be pronounced in the United States.

I took his name. I am planning on changing the kids names too.

Other ... I changed my last name to Myname-Hisname, and he was going to do the same, but I asked him not to. I always hated my maiden name, I didn't want to inflict it on anyone else.

Honestly, that seems to be the most common among my friends and colleagues: the woman hyphenates (Hername-Hisname, usually) and the man keeps his.

I changed my name to my husband's. My new name is my way of starting over in a new life, leaving the old miserable one behind.

Oops... I've never heard about that one. I should've put "Other (please explain) as an option.

I took his and didn't keep my maiden name anywhere. I'm all his and I just thought taking his name was a traditional way to do that.

I'm PROUDLY changing my last name!

Even though I am a "traditionalist" I changed reluctantly, having a career, home, etc, etc in my name. I made my maiden name my middle name and it is reflected on most official documents as just a middle initial.

I will take his name & will NOT be doing the hyphen thing.

I am hoping to use my current last name as a baby name I am really lucky-I have a super cool last name(at least I think so)

I changed my last name!
And as soon as I get to DMV my ID will reflect that

My first marriage - not this one - my then husband changed his name by deed to my name-his name then when I married him that legall became MY name (still following? lol) - this time round tho - my other half had no such inclination, and really the combination of my-name his name would have been too long (as it was already hyphenated).
So I just took his name - tho I do miss my maiden name cos it was unusual - but hey - I was willing to sacrifice it for this marriage - maybe that says something

We thought about making a 'new name' using my mother's maiden name to honour my much-loved grandparents (they had six daughters and one son and he's a life-long bachelor, so there are no more 'Reids' in the world ) but it was too much paperwork hassle to take a 'different' name, when we'd already had more than enough! So I did the conventional thing and took his - I don't mind, but it would have been nice to be able to do something different...

I will change mine after our family wedding. I really, really like my last name though, so I'm kind of sad to see it go. But his is cool too, and, like mine, all ethnic and southern European and apparently, it means "Yogurt" in Albanian.

well certainly not me!!!

I really wished I lived in a state where they had a spot on the marriage certificate for "Bride's Name After Marriage" and "Groom's Name After Marriage." Would have been far simpler. I think Virginia does that (I mean, a lot of states do, but I've known people in Virginia who changed to a made-up name that way).

My advisor in grad school married her husband and hyphenated her name. Then he and the kids got sick of the name (it was a cause of much teasing) so they had their name changed to his mother's maiden name. My advisor wanted to go back to just her maiden name and they told her she could only do that if she got divorced! But she didn't want to take the new last name. So now she has a double-barreled last name, and neither of them is her husband's/kids' name! (She just goes by her maiden name, though. But legally, she still has the double name.)

I don't think I'd have hyphenated my name if my maiden name weren't one syllable (G's name is two).

I'm changing mine to his, no hyphens no nothing.

I hyphenated before and it was such a pain in the azz & kinda made me feel like I was keeping it to keep some separation between us. Almost as if I knew that I would not stay that last name forever.

I'll change it this time because we will truly be one family & that's what I want. Plus, we will have kids and I want uniformity with our surname

I've added his name to mine so I now have two last names. Started off hyphenating until I got AOS NOAs with no hyphen , so decided USCIS could have their way and so I dropped the hyphen.

Unfortunately when I changed my name on my State ID card I was told that no spaces were allowed on their computer system so they had to add a hyphen, so when I fly domestically I book ticket using hyphenated name. Unfortunately, the Northwest check-in computer can't handle hyphens so it squishes the two names together as one.

And I've found out that to change my name on my UK passport, bank accounts etc I have to change my surna,e by deedpoll as in the UK you can either keep your maiden name or lose it and change to your husband's name.

I can see I'm going to have fun with this...

I of course change my first and last name.

my moms husband took on her last name, this is because, my moms last name carries alot of status and respect in the community.


I can understnad changing YOUR name but, not the kids names. that dont make since.
I am relating to this because, my parents tried that when I was little. as IF I would forget my real last name.
certainly I rember my real last name.

Couldn't wait to change it. My former married name always sounded like somebody mumbling. My new name has style and class!

Plus he likes to call me 'missus'!

For those of you who are fond of your maiden name and kind of hate to 'see it go', there's an old southern custom that the genteel families practiced of giving the mother's maiden name as a child's middle name. Both for boys and for girls.

I wanted to take his name ( I'm old fashioned I guess ) , but as I'm the last surviving member member of my family I didn't want to lose my name either. So going hyphenated was the perfect solution , our names fit together beautifully like we do

KIm

I changed mine to his

I changed mine to my husbands. I initially wanted to keep both, but my husband told me how much it would mean to him if I didn't and just took his name. It's a small compromise on my part to make and made my husband very happy. I'm also very proud to have his name. It really does feel like starting a whole new chapter in life.

I kept my maiden name. It didn't matter to my husband and he said he would support whatever choice I made. I like my maiden name - it is unique - and it had been mine for 49 years when I got married. All of my life's professional work - publications, documents, employment, credit, accomplishments and awards - everything was in that name. By getting married I changed my home, my country and everything else of my life - I didn't see the need to change 'me' as well. It felt too much like negating who I was and what I had accomplished with my life to date. The unexpected benefit has also been the ease of maintaining my identification without having to change my name everywhere. Much easier:-), I just have to explain to everyone all of the time why I ddin't take my husband's last name:-).

I'd like to ADD his name if it's possible. I love my last name and it's a way of having my mom and dad with me forever. It's one of the things that connect me to my sister and the rest of the family too so it's important to me. But since I really do want to take Dave's last name, I want to add it if it's possible.

So it'd be like Marcela (mom's maiden name) (dad's last name) (Dave's last name)
It's normal to do that here in Brazil. That's what my mom (and every other woman in my family) has done.

I will take his name. I certainly don't want to keep my ex husbands name! However, as I am moving to the UK, I have no idea what to do about changing my name on USA things like social security, passport etc. I might have to leave some of those as they are now.

mary

I can't wait to change my last name

I also don't want to keep my ex-husband's last name. I've mostly decided on taking his last name which is already double-barrelled and really freaking long. The other option would be to revert back to my maiden name, but that would be more hassle than it's worth. No matter what, once I'm married to him, I'm getting rid of the other man's name.

My fiancee' wants to take my last name, as his last name combined with his firstname generally ellicits much laughter from most people who understand English. You can use your imagination, just add the first name 'Harry' like hairy and add the worst possible combinations after that.

I do have a question though? Anyone know how hard it is for the husband to change his name instead of the wife?

When my niece married, her husband took her name for similar reasons to your fiance's situation. I don't know the details of how they did it and I don't really see her much anymore as she is from my ex's side of the family. But certainly it can and has been done.

mary

I had quite a fight to regain my maiden name before the divorce as I was told by some places where I held accounts that I had to be divorced to do it, and I admit, I became stubborn about it and felt it gave me back my own identity (which I felt I had lost in my previous marriage).

As prior to the internet relationship that evolved I hadnt ever intended to remarry it didnt become an issue until I arrived in the US on a K1. Since I am older and will not have children from this relationship to carry a family name, and my children carry their fathers name, my new husband and I each continue to be known by our birth names.

- It works for us -

but everyones circumstances are different and nowadays there are choices for both partners.

I voted the wife.
His name is in addition of mine, i use it but i still use my last name.

Since Japanese do not have a middle name my wife is using her maiden as a middle and taking my last name = Goodvibes

I like my husband last name better than my maiden name, that's why I took it!