Married Last Name - Spin Off

[Skippy918]

I dropped my maiden name.

 

[mamamary]

Born, raised and married in NY and I didn't do that. I honestly don't know anyone that did (maybe they did and I don't know). Does anyone really use their middle name anyway for it to be worth changing?

 

[aprilgail]

Live in NY-never heard of anyone doing that.

 

[nene0182]

When my MIL married my FIL she dropped her maiden name and took his but when they got divorced 20+ years later she went back to her maiden name. So when she married her second husband 8 years later she made her maiden name her middle name and used his last name. However she introduces herself as though she hyphenated the two names.

 

[DisLiss]

I don't specifically know of anyone who has done this. Of course, I may know people who have done it and the topic never came up, so I'm simply unaware of it.

My mother opted to change the way her name was written out on her driver's license when she married, but she didn't actually change her name. It used to say Jane A. Smith on her license and she switched it to Jane S. (for Smith) Jones after she married my dad.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My mom uses her maiden name as her middle initial. Then again I'm not sure she ever had an actual middle name.

 

[Diznotyzed]

It's done a lot here in Oregon, but I didn't because I have a double first name (think Rosemary or Joanne) and didn't want a longer name. My mother-in-law did it in Connecticut in the 50s, and adds in my maiden name for monograms and such.

 

[bjscheel]

Not here, the only time I've heard something similar is a groom taking the bride's maiden name as a new middle name.

 

[Karin1984]

I had never heard of it. But where I live you always keep your maiden name on your passport.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Not something I’ve seen done (Northeast).

 

[mjkacmom]

In NJ, never even heard of doing this.

 

[disykat]

Very much the done deal here in the PNW when I married IF you took your husband's last name. My mother from the Midwest did the same. I'm the only person I know that didn't, and only because I go by my middle name. My maiden name is no longer part of my legal name, but I think of myself as having four names. (First, middle, maiden, lasr)

I'm sure there will be others that say no one does that here, but in my experience it was pretty much the norm.

 

[Meriweather]

I personally don't know anymore that has done that.
I like my middle name (same as my mother's middle name). I just took my husband's last name.

 

[RedAngie]

My mother used the first initial of her maiden name in her signature, but I don’t know if she legally changed her middle name.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I grew up in NY and live in MA now. I have definitely heard of this, and knew it was an option when I got married. But I didn't actually do it because I love my middle name and my maiden name was the kind you get teased about...plus, I have a brother, so it wasn't all on me to preserve it.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

It is pretty common here (idaho) but I did not do that. I like my middle name and wanted to keep it. The lady at the social security office did seem confused I wasn’t doing it.

 

[mumto3girls]

I am from Pennsylvania and did it nearly 25 years ago. I wouldn’t say it is common here, but not unusual either. I don’t think my 2 married sisters did it and I know my mom did not. My paternal grandmother did and so did several of her sisters. I have always assumed it was an old tradition, but you know what they say about assumptions.

 

[SC Minnie]

I dropped my middle name and use my maiden name as my middle name. I'm from SC and that was typical. I have friends who are transplants and they dropped their maiden name altogether and took their husbands name. They thought what I did was weird and I thought what they did was weird.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Literally never heard of this before, lived in a few NE states and registered lots of kids for school at my old job. I do think there are some cultures that embrace stringing names but I haven't seen it, even if I did they might keep it on the downlow because of antiquated record keeping systems causing so much trouble. In fact, most of the systems I've seen are really bad at cross referencing family members with different last names, I was making notations all over the place to accommodate the reality that some people marry but don't swap names, some hyphenate, some don't marry but the kid takes dad's name, some divorce and change names, some divorce and remarry and change names , some kids have surrogate caregivers, some kids are siblings in the same house with different last names... the world needs to catch up.

 

[neverlandsky]

Not for me, yet definitely not unheard of. I know a few that changed their middle name to their maiden for the following reasons:
*Didn't like middle name.
*More professional middle name with degrees/licenses.
*Children had Bio-Mom's maiden name due to Bio-dad not involved or unwed.
*LGBTQ+