can you have TWO middle names legally?

[pintradingwedding]

I want to keep my maiden name, but i don't want to hyphenate, and i don't want to give up my middle name

so if you are Sally Ann Smith and you're marrying John Doe...

can you legally be Sally Ann Smith Doe ?

or do you have to be Sally Ann Smith-Doe

or Sally Smith Doe ?

I've googled and googled and can't seem to get an answer!

thanks!!!

 

[flipturngirl]

i think you can have as many names as you want...

 

[karentan]

you can do it anyway you want. i went down the hyphenated route. theres no set rule on this

 

[wendy46001]

Yup you can call yourself anything...
as for the middle names my lovely parents gave me four from the start...
so two sounds normal to me....

 

[dannirose]

Yes you can have two middle names (or however many you want) - I have two already so after I am married, if I decide to keep my last name in there I'll have three.

 

[Gradar1]

As others have said, you can have two middle names--although one of the reasons I know this is because of Friends, the tv show, when Phoebe renames herself Princess Consuela Banana Hammock.....hahaha!

 

[pintradingwedding]

 

[purplegirl247]

It's so funny because we were just discussing this the other day! I don't want to hyphenate my last name, so I'm thinking of hyphenating my middle, so I can still take his name but not give up mine (I'm the last one in our family; no male heirs to carry on the name). Glad I'm not the only one who likes her middle name enough to keep it!

 

[cryssi]

yes! I kept my full name and added DH's last. Tricky b/c my middle and maiden names combined are quite long, but I just wrote really tiny on the new SS card application. LOL So my middle and maiden names are now my 2 middle names. It was really, really easy. I have no hyphens anywhere, just 4 names...

just re-read the OP, and I would be the one that is

Sally Ann Smith Doe

nice b/c you can just go by Sally Doe if you want to be quick and easy...

 

[kab407]

just passing through...

I has a good laugh when I read this thread. Back when I had first gotten married, I had a rather heated argument with my former FIL. I decided for both professional and personal reasons not to take my then husband's last name. FIL insisted that there was a law on the books that stated that I had to change my name. I kept telling him there was no such thing and I could pretty much call myself what ever I wanted. What, the police were going to come and arrest me for not changing my name?!?!?! His next question was what name would the children have. My response was, "what kids"?

Yup, it was downhill from there.

 

[pintradingwedding]

It's so funny because we were just discussing this the other day! I don't want to hyphenate my last name, so I'm thinking of hyphenating my middle, so I can still take his name but not give up mine (I'm the last one in our family; no male heirs to carry on the name). Glad I'm not the only one who likes her middle name enough to keep it!

what is your (maiden) last name?




PS. we don't have to hyphenate the two middle names right? I mean some people are Lawrence Andrew Michael Miller The Third I want to be able to write my original last name OR his last name (or both) whenever I'm in the mood

 

[Tiggerific04]

I want to be able to write my original last name OR his last name (or both) whenever I'm in the mood

I'd like to know this also as this is what I'd like to do. If I become Sally Ann Smith Doe, can I use Sally Smith and Sally Doe? Or would I legally have to use Sally Doe?

 

[riaesq]

It's always been my understanding that you can call yourself whatever you like, as long as there is no fraud intended.

I usually use my maiden name but in a few circumstances use my dh's last name, depending on what the circumstances are.

 

[cryssi]

I'm pretty sure legally you would have to be sally doe...unless you had 2 last names, unhyphenated and you were ms. smith doe...

I kept all my names b/c i'm really pokey when it comes to changing things over...

At my old work, after I got married, they hyphenated my last name...I hadn't legally changed it yet. I changed jobs last summer, and now just go by my married name. It was weird! lol My business cards have my first maiden last on them...I didn't bother with my original middle (even though it's there!). Paycheck comes like Sally A.S. Doe...

 

[tmli]

So glad this was asked....I have been battling with the name issue myself. This will be my second marriage so my current last name is that of my ex....I kept it because we have a son together. I am torn because I really want to take the last name of my DF (which I will be doing) but then will not have the last name of my ds (which I am having a hard time with).

Have others had to make a similar decision?

 

[jdybnsn]

So glad this was asked....I have been battling with the name issue myself. This will be my second marriage so my current last name is that of my ex....I kept it because we have a son together. I am torn because I really want to take the last name of my DF (which I will be doing) but then will not have the last name of my ds (which I am having a hard time with).

Have others had to make a similar decision?

I'm also interested to hear the views of others because I am in the same position too - I kept my married name due to the kids, following my divorce...... and not least because my maiden name was hard for others to spell correctly ! Also, it is a lot of hassle (and in some cases money) to get things like passports and driving licence , bank accounts changed in the UK.

Now my BF is talking about getting married, I'm also wondering what to do...

I feel a loyalty to my kids name (though not my ex !), and a feeling of wanting to keep us looking more like a regular family on paper ...but would feel it would be unfair to my BF not to take his...though rather unhelpfully, I would guess he would not be bothered either way, since he is so easy going - bless him

 

[purplegirl247]

My last name is Persons. Not a terribly impressive name, but we have lots of family jokes attached (On the phone, we always give our names as "Persons, like a lot of people!" and for some reason the person on the other end always laughs. We also joke that we can say "we" but mean "I", because we're always plural, even when we're by ourselves. Yeah, we're weird. But I kinda like that about our family!).

I only want to hyphenate my middle names because I think it would be unique. Not many hyphenated MIDDLE names out there, I imagine! And as far as switching it up and using your middle/last names interchangeably, I have no idea.

Yesterday I was practicing writing my new name and whether to include my middle name(s) or not. I sat back for a moment and laughed and laughed. It's EXACTLY what I did in middle school when I liked a boy. My, how a wedding makes you regress!

 

[sandybobandy]

I can help!
I added DH's last name because I wanted to keep mine. So my maiden name was: Saundra Marie Maven (not my real last name BTW). DH's last name is Sherburn (not his real last name). So now my full name is
Saundra Marie Maven Sherburn. I do not hyphenate and they are two last names. I had the option of adding it as a middle name but I declined, so they are my two last names.
I tend to sign Maven more than Sherburn though because otherwise I don't remember which name is for what account. So it's a bit easier to keep it straight.
Hope that helps!

 

[travelgirl07]

I have been wondering what to change my name to as well. I go by my middle name currently, but my first name has no great significance. SO, do I drop my first name and take my last name as my new middle? For example, I am :

Jane Ann Doe and I go by Ann Doe

Do I change my name to Jane Ann Newname or Ann Doe Newname? What to do?

I was thinking Ann Doe Newname, but DF thinks that is silly. He thinks that I should be Jane Ann Newname.

 

[cryssi]

My mother at some point after all us kids were born changed her name. She had been first middle married, she changed to middle maiden married, since she had chosen her first name as a child when she moved to the states and only went by her middle name anyway.

don't know if that helps you, but if you don't use your first name anyway and don't want 4 names, then it's an option!