Long Hyphenated Names, Pros/Cons

I don't mind spelling it, I'm sure it's annoying but I always have to spell my maiden name anyway. The extra hassle would be worth it for me. I'm mostly just curious with forms, credit cards, the technicalities with the length. I'm either hyphenating or not changing so that's why I'm so curious. Such a big decision that will affect such a long part of my life lol.

@OG Alecia Thanks for your response! I think this is the best option for me, granted I'm in no rush to take time off from work just to go to the social security office anytime soon. I just didn't want the hassle of it never fitting on a form or even my credit card.

I've heard it gets annoying with doctors offices, etc because for whatever reason the computer systems always totally mess it up but I personally have no experience with it, since I'm not hyphenated

One of my officiants did this and it was not the most pleasant process in any of the places she had to change it.

I'd rather just keep my name then hyphenate. It's annoying and frustrating - my boss recently (in the last 2 years) dropped her hyphenated name. It was to much work - and with her kids it was just easier to have it be the other name- which is also significantly easier to spell.

I did this for my first marriage and whole heartedly regret it.

My divorce papers gave me the option to return to my maiden name but i didn't because i didn't wanna go through the hassle because one day I knew I'd marry again.

Now some papers have one name, some have another and some have both.

and its not long, my name is 12 letters hyphenated but Its a pain cause some places will pick and choose which names to display and there is little consistency.

My birth name is 17 characters plus the hyphen. It doesn't always fit on credit cards--you would think that would be a standard thing but some can accommodate it and some can't. Where it doesn't fit I just use my first initial and then my last name. I always used to run out of space on standardized test forms, but that's not an issue anymore (I just had to leave off the last few letters.)

Other than that, no particular hassle beyond spending a lot of time spelling it out for people. Oh, and random fact: when you book airline tickets their systems don't recognize the hyphen so you just have to run the two names together. And sometimes companies store your info under the second name. So if you were Jane Smith-Jones you go to ask if they have an order ready under S, and then you may have to tell them to look under J.

I'm on the fence about keeping my name. My sister and I are the only two people in the world with our name, and since it is such a behemoth it has been sort of part of my identity all my life. I'm definitely not taking my future husband's name--totally not our style!--but we will probably do a new name that incorporates parts of both of our names. I may just decide to keep what I have, though. We shall see.

As someone who works in databases for public schools....please don't do this or give your future kids a weird last name. This is 1 of the banes of my existence....

Mine would be 15 hyphenated and I'm not doing it for that reason. I can't wait to have a nice easy to spell last name.

Keeping my maiden name is pretty important to me. Taking only my husbands name is not an option for me and I have not even considered it. I'm not sure what your definition of a weird last name is but my husband is spanish and is from a school district that's mostly spanish and hyphenated names is pretty standard there. They seem to handle it just fine lol.

You have no idea.....

FH has a hyphenated name and he is dropping the second half after we're married. It's a hassle. Every time you buy a plane ticket, or a train ticket, or get a credit card, different companies have different requirements regarding hyphens or running them together or putting a space and then they don't always exactly match the ID you have. He's found it to be a huge bother. I was really disappointed because that was my plan too. I'm currently planning to use the hyphenated name socially but make my maiden name a second middle name legally.

Either keep your last name or take his but I wouldn't hyphenate. That's too long of a name

My mother wants me to hyphenate my current last name ( my ex's name / my kids last name) and my fiances. I told her no I'm not going to do that. People will know they are my kids whether we have the same last name or not. IMO either keep your maiden name if you like it, don't want to change or you are a dr. lawyer, etc. and it's on your documents or change it to your husbands. But hyphenating will just be a PITA!

FMIL didn't want to give up her maiden name, so she got rid of her middle name and changed it to her maiden name. So she goes by First Maiden Married.

I have not intention of hyphenating, but if I were to do so, my last name would be 16 letters long. I don't mind spelling it, but pronunciation for everyone else would be a clusterfuck, and honestly, I don't want to spend 10 minutes every time I have to sign off on paperwork (which is often).

Just know that it really will be something you have to deal with for the rest of your life-this pretty much goes for any name with a hyphen or extremely long one or with a unique spelling.

You probably won't be able to fit everything in the spaces provided on forms...like the ones where there's one square per character?

I could be lying...there could be like 20 spaces...but that's the only thing I can think of.

I'm taking FH last name and replacing my middle name with my maiden name.

It sounds to me like your mind is made up, and I think that's great! If it is important to you, all the other cons will fade away. There is nothing wrong with hyphenating if that's what works best for you. This is such a personal choice.