Changing your last name

[TaraMarie]

Nope...we both grew up on Long Island, and he is still here. Majority Irish or Italian. Go figure why people can't spell it or pronounce it.

[CynicalQuixotic]

Nope...we both grew up on Long Island, and he is still here. Majority Irish or Italian. Go figure why people can't spell it or pronounce it.

And Jewish. Don't forget us, we basically own Nassau County.

[TaraMarie]

Yep. Is there anything else? Not on L I, for sure! We've cornered the market. So funny. Where I live now NOBODY is Jewish (or Catholic, for that matter).... Nobody knows what a knish or matzoh ball is! Boy. Are they missing out!

[Kinderkimber]

I am definitely ready to change my last name when we get married. I love the idea of being called by his name. It's just something of his I can have every day even though we are so far apart.

[kittyxuchiha11]

She's taking my last name when the time comes because she refers it to hers and people can actually pronounce mine lol :3

[differentcountries]

I have kept both my last names, from my mother and father.

My husband after we married took my middle name, which is my mother's last name, from the farm where my maternal grandfather grew up. It is quite a rare name, the spelling of it anyway. My husband's last name is very common and I don't accociate it with him much, we have several friends with the same last name. I think his name is prettier now, and three names like mine. My brother in law also took me and my sister's middle name, and she took his last name so they both have the same last names. I think just by marriage my mother's last name is starting to gain some fame! Not hyphened, though. It is not usual to hyphen names here, people just keep adding names LOL.

I used to never think I would take someone's last name, my mom did not when she married. Though, since I can't marry SO it would perhaps be nice to take his name, to belong to him somehow. If I did, I would keep my original names as well.

[Dziubka]

I think all the countries with lax name laws are weird
Probably because ours are very strict and we can't just randomly add or combine names or make names "middle names".
We have first names and last names.
You can't really change your first name just because you want to. There are only a few very exceptional situations that allow you to change your first name(s).

And then we have last names, which you can't change either.
Unless you get married, in which case both people can chose one name. Or one of them can hyphenate.


I wish we could both hyphenate and use my name in my country and his name in his *sigh*
For the time being we both kept our names.

[Hollandia]

It all depends on what happens with my business. I have to sign my name on so many change forms and possibly risk revalidation requests for 'change of ownership", all the documents and vendors and doctors, I think if the business is still up and running I won't change my name. If it is not, then I would love to take his name.

I also thought about going with an alias for personal versus business life, but really I don't he will mind either way.

[Miasmata]

The hassle of changing all important legal things is definitely a factor. I wouldn't consider changing my name if I still had important legal things going on that would be put on hold or complicated by the new name.

It also depends on the last name. His last name sounds kinda odd when you pronounce it German instead of English, but with my first name not being English nobody would know that the last name isn't German. It would just sound weird, and constantly correcting people is also not nice. No idea how I would go about that.

[VeraRyan]

I'd change my last name but maybe I can keep mine too

[MyHindiHeart]

I will be changing my last name to his last name ♥ Which actually sounds French when you speak it, but it's Indian.
I like my last name, but for me it means something special to take on his last name. ♥ I could never hyphenate or keep my name. It's purely personal though.

[MyHindiHeart]

I took my husband's given name. Yeah, GIVEN name!

There are several ways of naming a married girl in India. One of the ways is like this: given name + husband’s given name + caste. There is no provision for a maiden name. But of course this is entirely for Indian nationals. My personal records would still bear my maiden name together with my husband's first name and the caste which he belongs to. So my complete married name is given name+maiden name+husband's given name+caste. It's very long. So for informal gatherings, casual meetings and web presence, I am using my nickname+caste. Short and simple!

Not unusual from what I know. I also know that some parts of India, brides are given a new name by the family. Since I'm American, I'm really not sure what will happen when me marry, but I'll be taking his last name. His family likes to call me "Cristy" as a nickname to Crystal, so that's kinda cute. I can accept that.

[crazycarrie06]

Ohy, this is a point of contention for me and my SO. I personally can not find any argument beyond "tradition" for changing my last name, and I don't feel that is a good enough reason. I've had my name for 27 years, it's who I am, my heritage and family history, it's something I'm quite proud of. He sees it as a rejection of his family - but I then say that he's then asking me to reject mine.

On the other hand, I also see it as a very romantic gesture - we're making a life and family together, so we should have a similar identity (this could be a good argument for just *inventing* a last name IMO).

At the end of the day, how I feel is - if he truly wants to marry me, then whatever decision I make really shouldn't matter to him. If the name thing is a deal breaker, that's a pretty weak deal breaker and speaks volumes of the strength of our relationship. So, if he asks me to take his name then he needs to be okay with a possible NO. But, on my side, if he is willing to do that for me then I would be willing to take his name because I know it means a lot to him.

Not entirely certain if that makes any sense.

[vicks5721]

I know for definitely I am going to change my name and I am so happy to, before I met my SO I used to sometimes think about keeping my family name as I thought there isn't many people in my family left with the surname. But then I changed my mind back once I met my SO and I love the whole thing about changing to his surname when we get married, it feels like we become family and I love the fact of writing a new signature and saying to people etc the list goes on why it is so wonderful!

[CanadianGirl]

For me, my last name is my last name forever. By naming customs, I got my father's first name as my last name. We were very close before his passing, so it means far too much to me to change.

My SO and I talked about this a few times, but we don't know what we'd do about any possible future kids. My last name seriously outshines my SOs by sheer size (x3), so if we hyphenate it, they'll end up with huuuge names. His last name is short, but mine is way higher up alphabetically. I feel like I could be okay with letting them just have my SO's last name. There are plenty of other ways to let the world know those kids have me for a mom .