Married ladies: Name change-keep maiden or middle?

After 6 years of dating, my dh said, "I won't marry you unless you take my name." I replied, "Fine, then we'll shack up forever!" We didn't speak of it again, and 4 years later he proposed, I accepted. He then asked if I'd take his name. I took his, dropped mine (I'm fond of my middle name, which is very unusual and goes well with my first) and took his. Now that we have kids, it saves a lot of explaining. Even in these modern days, with blended families everywhere, people still go with 'child's name is mom's last name' assumptions. I think women should feel free to do whatever they want.

My maiden name is going. I love my middle name (Sahri) and could NEVER get rid of it. And I'm going to be honored to become a part of Nick's family. I'm still a (insert my last name here!) but I'm excited to go from Ms. G. to Mrs. D!

I had also never heard of making your middle name your maiden name until I joined WW. That would look really weird for me when I filled out forms as I have a last name that does not work for a middle name and I could never imagine dropping my middle name. Here in Canada most people I know take their husbands name or stay with their maiden names; and even that is not done very often.

Yeah I had not actually heard of it until Khloe Kardashian did it....it definitely wouldn't fit for mine because my last name to me can only be a last name

I think its understood here the middle name becomes the maiden name....it doesn't matter that it doesn't sound like a middle name. I had two middle names, one of which was very dear to me because it was my grandmother's name but I dropped them made maiden name middle.

Surprisingly my Dh didn't care. I mean he was happy i took his name and I never even thought about not taking it cause I just think it would be weird not too for me.

but if I'd have decided to keep it, He probably would not have cared. It bothers me a little. i want it to be as important to him as is to me.

But then again he's a very easy going person about everything and I knew that going in.

I've never known this to happen before but my cousin actually married someone with the same last name as her...talk about easy transition.

When we initially discussed this, we both decided we were going to change our names. I would be Lindsay MyLastName HisLastName and he would be Adam MyLastName HisLastName. We're currently the "MyLastName HisLastName Family" and I wanted that to continue. I then quickly realized that I would not only have to change MY name, but I would have to change HIS because I knew he wouldn't do the paperwork (I handle everything as it is) and I didn't want to do it and I really wanted to keep my name anyway. He was not happy at first and it took him awhile (this is my second marriage and his first), but he has agreed that it is my decision and it won't make us any less married and we won't love each other any less so what difference does it make? Our first born (if we have kids) will have his last name and if we have a second child (probably not) will have my last name.

Question...if you move your maiden name to your middle name and add his last name, wouldn't you be called by your last name? I rarely use my middle name anyway so what would be the difference?

The difference is still that you have to change all your documents with your correct middle name (as your maiden name would be that now) and your new last name. You would be known as Mrs. NewLastName, but you'd get to keep your maiden name in your name instead of losing it all together. I did that with my first marriage and fought hard to get it back and don't want to change it again.

I will probably change just the necessary documents and leave the rest as is - at least for a little while. It's a hassle to change documents, credit cards, etc.

I never knew people moved their maiden names to their middle names. Of all my names, I'm most attached to my middle name! One, I just plain like it, and two, I was named after my now deceased Grandfather, and my now deceased baby brother.

I considered hyphenating, but in the end (well, technically I'm still in the process) decided to just change it.

Live near Chicago. I had never heard of the change your middle name to your maiden name thing. I'm pretty sure I only have one married girlfriend who did this and all the rest just dropped their maiden name for their husband's name.

Me, I waited for a guy who didn't care and kept my maiden name.

I only recently heard of using your maiden name as your new middle name when my FH asked me if I was going to do that. Every woman in his family has done it. Maybe it's a southern tradition? He's from VA.

I just got married, and I've added my maiden name as my middle name so now I have 2 middle names and took his last name.

We did argue about what to do with the last name thing because he wanted me to have just his last name (not a fan of the hyphenating) and felt like if I didn't want to that I wasn't as "committed," which is not true -- I am just VERY attached to my last name AND I'm the only child, so it was important to my dad, too.

So, it pretty much became a "win-win" to just have 2 middle names. If I wasn't also attached to my middle name, I'd have dropped it, but I didn't want to do that either. Now, it's nice because I can still sign stuff w/ my middle (maiden) name and last name together and not lose my maiden name.

I'm just confused about what to do when you're filling out stuff and they want your middle initial. I guess my original middle name initial would be the best way to go there.

Also, like right now for example, I'm filling out paperwork for business taxes and I'm the administrator of the account and it wants just my first and last name. Well, ideally I'd like to have my middle (maiden) in there so they know it's ME but I don't think I'm going to be able to do that.

It seems regions come into play on whether you drop your middle name or maiden name. I am from the NE and I everyone I know dropped their maiden name. I now live in the SE and everyone here drops their middle name and transfers their maiden name to their middle name.

At the end of the day its up to you and what you want your name to be! Congrats

I always thought it was a cultural thing (I'm Filipino) because I've only seen this most common in Filipinos. Both my Dad and Mom's middle names are last names. I was very happy to get an actual middle name.

I like my middle name.

I also like my last name. I thought I'd have to lose it when I was younger and was okay with it. I even tattooed it on my body knowing I'd lose it one day (and because I liked it so much). However, I recently learned about the middle name hyphenated, so hopefully when it's time to change my name, my state won't have issues with it. My FH even said that it would be a nice daughters/girl's first name =) we'll see! But I'm thrilled to keep my names in a new way and include my FH's last name.