Just wondering who here has changed their surname after marriage and why they did or didn't.

I didn't change my name after our marriage. My husband actually wanted to change his name to mine, but it requires standard name-change proceedure here in Illinois, it isn't something that happens automatically like it does with women. psh. We're going to wait it out and try to change his last name when he naturalizes.

Oh, and I didn't change mine because my husband didn't want me to have his last name. He doesn't even want his last name.

I changed mine because I didn't want my ex's last name. I waited until my husband got here to do it.

Becasue it's an antiquitated custom. I have my own identity don't need to jump on his bandwagon, thank you very much!

I changed mine because I wanted to and my hubby wanted me too..... I changed it about 10 months or so after we got married when I was still living in Canada...

After much thought, my SO decided to use this as an opportunity to "dump" her ex husbands name as well as restore the ability for her to begin to use her maiden name again

No I didn't.

yes, i did

Yes

No I didn't - I love my name - the perfect name for a Michigan girl

I changed mine, otherwise it would have been my ex's lastname.

Nope, I didn't change it. My grandma thinks I'm crazy. After the ceremony, she asked what my last name was (she has a hard time with my husband's name). I told her I wasn't changing it, then she looked worried and asked my grandpa, "What did she say?!" Lol. Don't worry grandma, it'll be okay.

I was using both back in France but when we filled for the visa I only used his. I thought it would make it easier for the visa application but also because I don't want to have a French last name here.

Interesting article on global customs of name change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married_name#Use_maiden_name

Yes, I changed my last name. If we had stayed / continued to live in Nova Scotia, I would have hyphenated my last name to make life a bit easier as far as my career was concerned.

Yep, I changed it. I don't care about the whole 'outdated, patriarchal custom' thing that worries some people - it's not like anyone's making me do it, and changing my surname to my husband's doesn't in any way make me his property or his chattel. I just think it's a nice thing to do, and I wanted to do it. Besides, I like the name... having spent the last 31 years with a surname people ALWAYS spell and pronounce wrong (despite the fact that it only has five bloody letters in it - how hard can it be?!?!), I'm loving my nice new surname.

You old cow!

Anyhoo, my name is MUCH cooler than his. So I'm keeping it. And the 2 together are WAY TOO LONG (mine is 7, his is 8)

Hehehee, if his surname had been LESS cool than mine, I'd have been going on about how I'm not changing my identity for no pesky man, and sticking with the name I was born with.

(And yeah... super-long double-barrelled names just sound daft!)

I changed mine. However, I had to introduce my middle name into the equation. If I had left it as my first name only and his surname I would have sounded like a martial art.

Feather knows what I mean!

I'm sure there's a karate-chopping smiley out there somewhere that would be PERFECT right about now, if only I could find one... anyway, I think your new name (complete with middle name) sounds good, Mags!

Cheers, me dear!

Now, gotta get me onto that karate chopping smiley finding mission!

this is another reason I kept mine - never have to spell it for no one!

Ta-da! Marilyn to the rescue!

I didn't change mine either. Mainly for professional reasons, plus the fact we would have never gotten married had it not been for immigration, so I didn't want to do the whole traditional thing seeing as I hardly believe in it. People still send us crap with Mr & Mrs Wotsit on envelopes and it drives me potty. (And no, his name isn't **** Wotsit before anyone asks )

On the other hand, had he some uber cool surname, I may have considered it. Fickle, me?

I changed my name...I didn't want to be stuck with my ex's last name forever. More important though, I wanted to have my husband's last name, regardless of what my former surname might have been.

I plan on changing mine to his...

I hated my last name so I wanted to ditch it (it's hard to spell, or at least easy to *mis*spell). But I already had stuff published under it so I didn't want to lose it altogether so I didn't disappear from directories and such. So I hyphenated it. But I just use his for the most part.

He was going to hyphenate his as well, but I told him not to because i hated my maiden name so much. Like Arazia's husband.

Well, I actually do love his surname a whole lot. But I love my maiden name too. I just changed it back a few months ago after my divorce. I don't know if I want to go through the hassle of changing it again. Professionally it would be a pain in the arse. I might change it legally but just continue to use my maiden name at work lest I totally confuse the kids...

Yup - His name was like 100 times better than mine LOL

I did not. Its not customary in Morocco for a woman to change her name, but even if it was I dont think I would have because I have a child (from a previous relationship) with my same last name. I didnt ever want us to be a family of X with him sitting there as a Y. So my son and I have the same last name and when our daughter is born later this year she will have her fathers last name....

Yes I changed my name.

I haven't changed mine yet. But, I'm open to the idea. DH doesn't have a traditional last name. Sometimes he uses 3 names, sometimes it's 4. Depending on what's required. I will wait to see how many names of my husband's get printed on his visa, and then I will decide which one (if any) to use.

I thought about hyphenating - only because we're an all girl family on my side and I kind of want to hold on to my dad's name. But, if it's too long or bothersome, I won't do it.

And, DH doesn't like his grandfather's name. He doesn't want to use it in the US. So, we're crossing our fingers that we get to use either his 2nd or 4th name.

i know its not tradition in morocco for the women to take on their husband's last name...but i plan on taking my fiance's last name once we're married. his last name is really cool and fits my personality really well! i also had always dreamt of doing this when i was growing up. it really never crossed my mind NOT to take my husband's name!

I voted YES, because I like my fiancee's last name.

Your husband and my husband need to start a support group.

I didn't take his name either because he didn't want me to. He said his name was too common and he didn't like it anyway. Whatever. I don't have any strong feelings one way or another about it.

Yes, I did change my last name.
My maiden name is one of the easiest and most common surnames in the U.S. and I was fine with it. However, I wanted to be Mrs. (new surname) in order to have the same last name as my husband, to leave behind the last name of my father (who I am not close with), and because I think that a Portuguese surname fits me well .
I like my new name. I understand why women don't do (my sister got married 2 months ago and is thinking of perhaps hyphenating her name name but definetly not losing her maiden name).

The only thing is that I'm a teacher and the students were having a bit of a hard time with the adjustment.
I think next school year will be easier....

Rodjanaa did and didn't - she uses my surname in the USA, her maiden name in her country.

Yodrak

I'm planning to change my last name, mainly because mine is bloody hard to spell and I'm tired of always having to say it, and then spell it. ALL the time!!

I am in a bit of a no-man's-land with last names right now. Professionally (and legally), I still use my ex's last name. Socially, I'm mostly using the new married name, and occasionally the old one. I'm not really happy ditching the old last name, even if it is my ex's, because that is the name I've built my reputation on over here in the UK. What I think I will probably do is double-barrel it for professional use when we finally make the move to America, and legally change it to the new name. Both are really pretty easy names to spell and pronounce, and not too much of a mouthful when together.

To complicate things, The Boy hates his first and last name, and has every intention of having a new stage name. If there's someone with his name in Actor's Equity, he'll have to do it anyway. If he hits the big time out in LA, I wonder what I'll decide on doing then...

I wouldn't have changed my name if my children had been young when I married my husband, but they were nearly grown by then.

I also wanted to take my husband's last name, and he was happy with that decision.

yeah i changed my last name, even though i like my maiden name i like my married name too , i thought it was cool to make a change , to something different! LOL!

I love my last name, way more than my husband's last name, but I changed my last name for 2 reasons:

1 - if I had to spell my last name here every time I would go crazy, I had to spell it in Brazil most of the time, spelling it in english would just drive me insane.
2 - I'm still old fashioned when it comes to certain traditions. It is best that I'm associated to my husband by name and that we all (me, him and our future kids) have the same last name. Easier that way.

Not married yet but will be changing it once I am. Out of the 6 years we've known one another, don't think we've even talked about this...never even thought about it. I want his name and I'm sure he will love that.

Hi everyone, I want to change my last name when my husband arrives to the US. How does one go about changing their last name in the US if they were married in another country? Does the marriage certificate need to be translated to English?

I changed my last name at the Secretary of State (DMV). I used my marriage license with its English translation. The SOS wouldn't accept the translated version alone, they wanted the original also even though no one could read it (it was in Arabic).

Same. It marks a convenient detachment to my past family on my father's side.

I'm the USC - so I can only tell you that the way you change your surname in the U.S. is by going to the Social Security Office and having your SSN updated. It's also important to go to the DMV.
My employer couldn't change my last name on their records (therefore my insurance) until I showed my new SS card.

At other places I show our marriage license and tell whoever that my new last name is the same as my husband's.

My husband took my last name when we were married. I never thought I might change my name - I like my name, I identify with it, and my mother never changed her name. It wasn't important to me to have the same name as my husband, and it would have been alright to give our future children his surname. But he liked my name and was keen to take it, so he did. And it's cool.

Yes I did, because I wanted to. I went from one uncommon last name to an even more uncommon last name(at least in the US).