Changing your last name?

View Quoted Comment My sister’s wife took her name, I think because she grew up with 4 brothers so all their kids have her maiden name while it was just me and my sister with our last name, other than our male cousins who aren’t married yet. Their kids both have my last name and I think their decision really made it easy for me to be traditional and take FH’s name.
Maybe there was more to the decision, but I’m thankful for whatever the reasons were!

I'm changing my name and while I was filling out our marriage license, I felt something in me that had died. It was a very awful feeling.

I can't wait to get rid of mine! I kept my ex-husband's name and I'm soooo ready to give it up. LOL! The only bad this is that my 2 sons will not share my name now but they are grown so really it's okay.

There is no right or wrong answer, but there is a really interesting quote by Elizabeth Emens who writes about the social implications of naming conventions in marriage:

"Imagine two people. One grew up knowing from a young age that his name is
his to keep, and that it won't change by virtue of his relationships. In
fact, if he marries and has children, his name will spread to his family, and, if he has boys, to future generations. The second person grew up
knowing from a young age that her name would disappear and be replaced by another name, if and only if she were lucky enough to be
loved enough to be given a new name... With new boys she met, she scribbled out her new name and
dreamily imagined herself as Mrs. Somebody Else."

I recommend taking your maiden name as your middle name and taking his last name, keeps things simple in the future!

View Quoted Comment

I plan on doing the same. I have no attachment to my middle name currently so I'm dropping that and will have my current last name as my middle name. That way you don't lose that big part of your identity but can still share that connection of having the same last name with your FH and kids.

View Quoted Comment I had never read this before and it’s actually quite sad (in my interpretation). I only ever scribbled celebrity last names with mine like Clooney or DiCaprio for fun but in actuality I wouldn’t be able to change my last name as it is part of my identity. And luckily a man loves me enough to not fight me on that.

I have been struggling with this as well!! I think I'm going to keep it as my middle name and even might use the name for one of my kids in the future.