Changing Your Name When You Get Married
Thursday September 11, 2008
A good friend of mine who recently got married decided to change her name - only it's not been as easy as she thought it would be. In her mind, it would just be as easy as going to the social security office, then sending human resources an email. But instead, her work has a folder of paperwork to fill out, and a few hoops to jump through. Right now, she's in the position of having the correct name on her email, but still has to wait a few more weeks for new business cards. That means that she has to explain to everyone that she changed her name, and invariably gets comments and questions. They've ranged from, "I'm so glad there are still some traditional people out there!" to "Oh, I like your old name better."
Since she considers herself a feminist, she did put a fair amount of consideration into what it meant to change her name. But in the end, she had never really liked her maiden name, and loved his. What she didn't anticipate is how many comments from the peanut gallery she'd get!
What do you think? Are you considering changing your name?
For more information on how to legally change your name, read this article.
If you're still trying to decide whether or not to change your name, here is some advice that may help you decide.
Since she considers herself a feminist, she did put a fair amount of consideration into what it meant to change her name. But in the end, she had never really liked her maiden name, and loved his. What she didn't anticipate is how many comments from the peanut gallery she'd get!
What do you think? Are you considering changing your name?
For more information on how to legally change your name, read this article.
If you're still trying to decide whether or not to change your name, here is some advice that may help you decide.
Comments
I didn’t change my name for the principal reason that it’s pretty well known in my field and my employer would be justifiably disgruntled.
Car rental companies, or at least Alamo (Las Vegas airport, 9/1/08), discriminate against married women who use their own names. If you have the same name as your husband, you can both drive the car without paying extra fees. Show them a driver’s license with your own last name, however, and even if the address is the same on your two licenses, they will charge $10/day (in Alamo’s case) for both husband and wife to drive the rental car.
I’m not letting that annoyance make me rethink my identity, and I don’t encourage anyone else to bow to Alamo’s antifeminist policy either.
Oh gosh. I remember when I changed my name. It wasn’t that difficult to do the official change, but it took me forever to change all my accounts, licence and other bureaucratic bits and pieces. I think it took me about two years before I had everything done!
Having said that, it wasn’t really difficult for me to do so just time consuming to go to each office and fill out the paperwork.
It’s been a hassle for my wife. At least initially it seemed to go smoothly but every once and a while some document will crop up with her maiden name and it will take an act of Congress to take care of the issue.
I think I would be pretty offended by the car rental place if they charged me extra for keeping my own name.
One thing comes to mind however would be their frequent renter club, whatever they call it. Both names can probably be registered to one account and avoid the situation.
I plan to take my husbands name when we are married. Its just how things are done. But I could understand some couples doing the hyphen thing or keeping the last name for work reasons.
It would seem strange if I got married and didn’t have my husbands name though, almost like we never even got married at all, if anyone understands my thinking.
I am planning on getting married some time soon and I am keeping my last name. I believe you are joined at the heart and the soul not the name. If people today will realize that marriages will last. donot
forget it just the name.
I remember after I got married the stress that I had to go through in order to get my name changed, it really came as quite a shock. In Australia there is quite a lot of red tape to get around which no body told me about. So in true sisterhood fashion I made my own name changing kit to make the process simplier for everyone.
it was pretty easy to do it for my wife. she was talking to our mortgage company and they wanted to charge her $35 to change her name. She was the one that owed them money, so she said that if they didn’t want to update their records with her real name that it was their problem. They updated them for free.
chuck
theweddinglens.com
When my best friend got married, her husband ended up taking HER last name. Not traditional, but an alternative to consider!