I didn't like giving up my last name. But I was a Pharmacy Technician for 8 years (random, but I’m going somewhere with this). In a pharmacy, prescriptions are filed by last name. Often, everyone in the family would be on medication (routine stuff, like allergy meds or something) and if the mom had a different last name (which included hyphenated names, since the maiden name comes first), her prescriptions were filed separately. I don’t know why, but this always struck me as a very sad visual. The dad’s and kids’ medications were all together in a nice happy group and the mom’s was off on her own, all alone. It just seemed like she deliberately singled herself out (which is absurd, because it doesn’t have to mean that). I didn’t want there to be anything that made me separate from my family. I wanted us all together (The X Family, not the W/X Family).
But really, this is just a very weird personal issue of mine. Did you hyphenate your name? Did you consider it?
I didn't hyphenate. I had a whack, hard to spell and pronounce German last name and so I was ready to bail on it for T's easier to say/spell last name.
ReplyDeleteI laugh that I was the only one between my sisters and I who managed to get a harder last name then my maiden name. I did change my name (it always seemed to me like the natural thing to do.) But we like to joke that I should have hyphenated it because then my whole name would be Elsha Gustavson-van de Boogaard. Which- HA. No.
ReplyDeleteI ended up keeping my name because my husband's name is a lot more complicated to pronounce and spell. It hasn't been an issue yet!
ReplyDeleteI kept my maiden name at work, but changed it legally. I sometimes feel like I have a secret identity or split personalities. But it was important for me to keep my byline.
ReplyDeleteI kept my name, which I had been planning to do forever. Justin still wants me to change it, but I'd only change legally if the girls asked me to. That sounds harsh - that I'd change for the girls and not my hubs, but he knew that was the deal from like our third date.
ReplyDeleteI only put J and the girls' last name on our Christmas cards this year, which was a first - usually I jokingly call our family the Diniwilks (it's part of both of our names, and waaaaay shorter than hyphenating). Hence the blog name :)
I couldn't wait to change my last name and become part of my husband's family. I didn't have a great relationship with my dad and my mom was re-married with her own new last name, so losing the maiden name wasn't an issue for me. I dropped it completely too since I go by my middle name. Now that we've been married for nine years, I hear that old name and wonder who that is sometimes. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI hyphenated legally but go by my maiden name at work and married name outside of work. That makes for some confusion so when I move to my next job I will probably hyphenate at work and outside of work so I have one name instead of three.
ReplyDeleteIt was very important for me to keep my maiden name in some form. My grandfather had four boys who each had two girls meaning our name would go away with each of getting married.
The girls only have my husband's name.