Creating New Last Name

I've never seen it but that's a cool idea. It's like a blend of your stories together for your new journey. My husband jokes about us doing that and he jokingly comes up with awful combos aha

Haha yes we’ve definitely joked about every combination! We are mostly doing it because he doesn’t have a great last name (Dumville) and I wasn’t a big fan of taking it 🙂. I am very thankful that he is willing to do it even though it won’t be easy for him.

You might just want to check whether this will require a legal name change petition. (Changing to your spouse's name or a hyphenated name on marriage generally does not, but changing to a whole new name often does.) If it does, he may want to change his name before the marriage, so that you won't have to go through (and pay for) your own separate name change petition.

As for how he explains it, he says it seems sexist that changing one's name is expected of a woman, but not of a man. And then he drops the subject. The more he acts like it's something weird, the more others will too.

View Quoted Comment Yes we will need to do a name change petition. Those are really good suggestions, thanks!

I know 2 couples that have done this. Not sure if they legally did it or not. One couple changed the spelling of the last name to what it was before. Like historically speaking.
Another couple just changed their last names on facebook to something completely out there.
I thought it was more odd that the couple added one letter to their names than the couple that decided they were going to go by Mr & Mrs Chucknorris.

I had a client that did this with her husband, new name for both of them. Some people definitely looked confused and were lil judgey at first (me! I'm some people). But once she explained to me the reasoning and why they wanted a fresh start, I was SO happy that they didnt let anyone's opinion stop them. Just know people will make comments, but if you're doing it for the right reasons they will respect you!

We’ve talked about it too! I kept my last name but we’ve talked about creating a new one together. We still might sometime.

You two just can’t worry about what other people think of that’s what’s best for you.

We aren't doing it but FH did tease about it early on because his last name is NEVER spelled or pronounced correctly. My current is Stephens and his is Kumpf and he was telling people we were going to change both our last names to Stump.

Spoiler alert: I am taking his last name lol

My FH has been joking about this for a while. My current is Armstrong and his is Babcock, so he wants to combine the second half of each. Obviously, I'm a little against it. LOL.

You should definitely do what you feel the most comfortable with and not care about everyone else's perceptions. This is the start of your new journey together!

We have a slightly different situation, especially being two brides. We both kept our married names when we divorced because we each have a son with that name and it was important to each of us at the time to share our son's last name. Now we want to hyphenate my maiden name with a historically accurate version of her grandmother's maiden name. We are going to have to petition because of this but it really means a lot to her to not use her maiden name and I totally support that.

I did marry a couple that chose to use her last name instead of his. He is extremely comfortable with who he is and gives zero you know whats what others think. And honestly, her last name really fits them both anyway.

As for people giving him a hard time, like a PP stated, just have him remind them it's pretty sexist to assume only women change their names. Good luck!

My fiance is taking mine and is just going to tell everyone it's a sexist assumption to think someone wouldn't want to change their own name.

Love it! I always say more couples should do this. It’s super meaningful to start a new family with a new name that carries both of your family histories.
FH & I have # with our last name combo since we got engaged & we go by it often 😊

As far as other people, you should really not even bother thinking about that. If someone has anything negative to say, it’s only reflection of their sexism & misogyny & them being stuck in 18th century lol, so feel free to tell them exactly that 😆 Only men who are fully confident in themselves & who respect their woman & treat her as equal, will be the ones who will change their last name & that speaks volumes about your FH. So you can both be proud of that!

We know two couples who have done this, though I don't think the first did it legally they just go by that socially. The second I know changed it because they posted about it on Facebook, but I'm not sure what the requirements were since they live in NY. We discussed it, but no matter how we arrange it our names sound weird mashed together. We also discussed the possibility of coming up with a new last name. However, we already have two kids together that have his name and changing four people's names sounds like way too much work, I can see myself procrastinating.

From my understanding, the state of Colorado lets both parties change their names with their marriage certificate, whether one spouse is taking the other's name, one or both are hyphenating, or both are changing to a combination of their two names, but I'm sure that varies state to state. If we wanted to come up with a brand new name, I'm pretty sure we would have to file a petition for each of us, sounds like a nightmare!

Good luck! I think combining your names is a great idea!

I just want to show my support - I think that is a great idea!! A new beginning for both of you!

I have heard of a lot of people who are doing this.

I think it's a very cool idea! I am taking my fiancés last name, but if we were combining then we would probably go to Britler or Briller (Brittain/Miller).

Thank you everyone for your support!!

FH and I created a new last name but we weren’t able to do it before we got married we plan to do it in the near future. It was actually very easy for us to creat the new last name but it doesn’t sound so great.

This was a first for me hearing about this. I think it's cool that you want to create something new and meaningful for the both of you. Like someone said, you're already gonna be blending your lives together anyway right?

Is it gonna be something completely new that reflects both of you or are you just combining your existing names?