Remember when you were dating your now your soon-to-be husband and you always doodled “Mrs.______” ? You always wanted to practice signing your new name. There are now so many options with how to play with your last name once you become a Mrs. Of course, it is a sign of your commitment and honor to your spouse. But not taking his name doesn’t mean you don’t honor him less. The question of taking your spouse’s name comes up on the day you fill out your marriage license. On it, there’s a box that asks you what you want to change your name to after you get married.
From my experience, I initially did the hyphenated name on my marriage license and chose to keep my maiden name after I got married. Not that I didn’t like my husband’s last name, but I think that my name is unique because it starts with the letter “Z”. I decided to keep my name for many reasons; I got my college diploma with that name, less of a hassle to change all legal documents with that name, and you are already known by that name with your collegues and past aquaintences, just in case someone was trying to locate you.
With more and more career-oriented women getting married, many have opted to keep their maiden name. It’s their identity and they associate that with their accomplishments. It’s a way of maintaining their professional structure seperate from their personal life. And like I mentioned, it’s less of a hassle to change legal documents.
But if you wanted to change your name, it’s advised to use your maiden name as your middle name and have your married name as your last name. This would make the transition on your documents easier, especially if your passport or license hasn’t expired & doesn’t need to be renewed yet. It states your maiden name and it would be a given that you got married (stated on both your passport and identification card). The benefits of this tip are you can have both your names and this will save you some cash.
The option of hyphenating your name is almost like changing your last name all together. You do have to get your legal documents changed right away. It’s different, not an addition to, like the previous mentioned. I’m not sure why hyphenated names became so popular, but I think it was a way to keep their name & to honor their husbands by taking their name. The downfalls of this besides changing all the legal documents…..people will almost never get your last name right. They will say one name, leave the other and it’s also a handful to say your last name. A trend related to this hyphenated name change is for both husband and wife to have both the hyphenated name, so it’s equal. You do have that option and you must also state that in your marriage license.
If you are dreading changing your name, there are services offered such as Ms. Now Mrs.. It’s easy to use an saves you from a lot of headache. There are other similar websites out there that can also assist you. They use a data base that transfers the name at once. But if you want to do all the changing yourself you have to see the following: DMV, Social Security, the US Postal Service, change your passport, the bank, your HR department, life insurance and financial policies, and the list goes on.
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