Was anyone else sad to lose their last name?

I'm excited to change mine! I have never been attached to it and like my middle name way more than my last name so will be keeping my middle. I have always been fond of my mothers maiden name so I will be adding that to my son's middle name so that we can keep that name alive. (Yes i already have names for my future kids lol)

I’m very attached to my last name, because there’s not many more boys with it in our family (only 3), so it’s slowly dwindling and that makes it harder to give up. I was going to add my current last name as a second middle name, but don’t want to go through the process of court. I will instead just have two last names (which is what I wanted in the first place, but FH didn’t agree).

Not sad because I am not changing it. I would have hyphenated if FH also did, but he doesn't want to change his name either.

I imagine a little sadness is normal. Your name is an important and visible part of your identity; that's not an easy thing to lose.

I’m changing mine but leaning toward a hyphen with my mom’s maiden name. I don’t have any sadness about losing my last name.

View Quoted Comment Are men who don’t take their spouse’s last name disrespectful?

No sad feelings here because I'm keeping mine. Neither FH or I want to change ours so we're keeping separate names.

I work in my dad's family business and uses the last name. I'm getting married in two week, June 16th to be exact. We went to get our marriage license this past Friday and my fiance and I have gone back and forth about changing my last name.

For me, since I work in the family business, I wasn't really wanting to change my last name and people like to see that my dad and I work as a team on the construction side.

My fiance wanted me to change my last name and I am going to change it, business I'm just going to use my other last name, but I have to sign everything with my legal name since there are contracts involved. Im definitely sad to lose my last name and we didn't commit to me changing my last name until we got the proof to check. By then my fiance was fine with me not changing my last name, but I did to make it easier for the day that we decide to add to our family. I told him to give me time to get used it, because my last name means something and is associated with the business. I'm just not excited to come home after our honeymoon in August to start changing my last name everywhere and it's so expensive to do so between all the agencies. Luckily, at that time my husband offered to help with the expense.

At the end of the day, it's just a new last name, but you have to make that decision as to whether or not you want to change your name.

I always wanted to take my fh’s last name. Growing up I always liked that my mom had the same last name as me. My future last name is long, hard to spell and pronounce but I’m getting use to it.

I am sad to lose mine! It’s a part of me! But I’m also excited to share a name with FH. I guess it’s kinda like any loss—there will be a grieving/transition period but it’ll be all good in the end.

Nope! I was excited to get rid of it!

My last initial won't change which is kinda fun. But I'm changing my last name from one last name that is confusing to spell to another last name that is confusing to spell.

I do not want to change my last name at all. But My FH is not having it. No if, ands or buts for him. I can't even hyphenate it. Plus it definitely would be too long because my last name has 9 letters in it. I'm sad too.

There is no question that I will excitedly be taking my husband’s name, however, I have had this same thought. I love my complicated Polish last name that I have to spell out ALL the time and it does make me a little sad to know it won’t be carried on in my family.

Totally agree!!! I don’t want to let go of my last name and I hate hyphenated names!!!!!

My feelings about changing my last name are kind of 50/50. It's bizarre to think that the name I've carried my entire life will just be gone, but I also have a very generic last name (Smith, please don't stalk me) so it will be nice not to have the same last name as **** other people. I also don't really have a relationship with my dad, so it doesn't bother me much to lose his name. My mother will be remarrying and changing her last name soon as well, so that helps a lot.

Have you considered any alternatives to dropping your maiden name entirely?

FH and I have gone round and round about this. I want to keep my last name because I think it flows better with my first and middle name, plus my last name is unique and FH is pretty common. (Grace Hannah Bartron is my name and FH's last name is Young.) Also I have 2 brothers, one has 2 kids a boy and a girl. My nephew is special needs and will likely never have kids and I'm going to assume my niece will take her future husband's last name. My other brother doesn't think he wants kids so if he doesn't our last name will die out. We joke about certain mannerisms we all have being a "Bartron" thing and we are all so close I love sharing my name with them. My family has accepted FH as one of their own and my dad has done more for him in the 3 years we've been together than his dad has done in his whole life. I want him to take my name but he is dead set against it. He doesn't want to take that last name as it is my dad's last name and he wants to be the man of our family, not have my dad as the patriarch. He wants our kids to have his last name even though he has no emotional attachment to anyone with his last name since his relationship with his dad is pretty much non existent. None of his siblings have the same dad as he does so he doesn't share the name with any of them or his mom. But since he wants me and our future kids to have his last name I'm gonna go ahead and take it. He is having a Catholic wedding for me so I guess I have to compromise too.

View Quoted Comment LOL, I’m going from a very simple and easy to spell last name to a long Polish last name!

View Quoted Comment That is funny! For 40 I’ve been a Czarnecki and in a little under a year, I won’t need to spell out “C as in cat, Z as in zebra.” I will be a Johnson, hahaha!

View Quoted Comment This isn’t a red flag for you that he is FORCING you to change your name? Marriage is about compromise, not forcing the other to do something they don’t want to.

Ask him to change his last name to yours and see how he reacts.

Ahhh im so sad. My dad was the only boy in his family with a bunch of sisters and of course he had 2 daughters. So when we both get married its the end of our last name for our family.