Taking your husband's name

[minniecarousel]

he-he....my parents wanted to give my oldest sister the middle name of Irene until they realized that her initials would have been PIG, so they chose a different middle name.

I know a couple - her name is Dani and his is Dan - sounds wierd!

 

[Inigo]

he-he....my parents wanted to give my oldest sister the middle name of Irene until they realized that her initials would have been PIG, so they chose a different middle name.

I know a couple - her name is Dani and his is Dan - sounds wierd!

I know a male Stacy who had a child with a female Stacey. Their daughter is Stacia. (Mom and dad didn't marry, so at least they didn't have identical first and last names!)

 

[Sgstuckey]

My DD15's first name is Haley. One of her male friend's last name is also Haley. The other day he commented to her that if they got married she would be "Haley Haley." Her response: "Good thing we're not getting married!"

My maiden name is a Scottish name easily pronounced and often misspelled. The misspelling used to seriously annoy me. My married name is a German name that is often mispronounced and frequently misspelled. I have joked with my husband that I should have kept the name that at least people pronounce correctly!

 

[pigletgirl]

Yes, I will be taking his name. Its much better than what I've got now. :woohoo

No more misspronunciations or spellings!!

 

[Mrs. Charming]

I went from one long often mispronounced and misspelled German name to a shorter, often mispronounced and misspelled German name. I can't win!! I was once told it's a "cool" name. LOL.

DD's name we picked easily, it sounded good with our name, and should work well with a good chunk of surnames. DS's name was a little harder to pick... but we're pretty much settled on it. We're stuck on a middle name, but we cant have anything that starts with a vowel because his initials will form a word. LOL!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I've dated some guys with unusual last names and I've been engaged twice to guys that had decent names (Kimberly goes with almost everything). I used to think about it when I would meet a guy or start dating him. Now I just want to find a decent guy, screw the last name! (oh, and I would take his name, I'm old fashioned too)

My grandmother was from Italy and her last name was Antinori (as in the Italian winery). Growing up I always wished I had her last name, I thought it was so beautiful.

 

[southernbohemian]

I hyphenated my son's last name. My last name is a nice middle-of-the-road, not common, not super uncommon last name. My dad had only girls, as well as his siblings, so I didn't want our generation to be the last ones of our family tree with that last name. But he's only half mine, so it's hyphenated. I sometimes wonder what last name his children will have, since they can't go on hyphenating forever, but that'll be up to him.

 

[DaParkers]

I'm fortunate that my first name goes well with my husband's last, but other former boyfriends, not so much. I had a HS teacher whose last name was Christmas... that's right, his wife's name is Mary. DH and I have been married nearly 22 years -- my mom almost always has written checks and envelopes out to me with my maiden name, or maiden name crossed out and then DH's name -- not out of any suppressed problem with DH, I don't think.

My mother had a friend named Mary who married a man named Johnny Christmas. So, there is more than one Mary Christmas!

 

[Disney Doll]

Most of the guys I have dated are Irish, so the names were OK...

I did date one Italian fella with a long very Italian last name which sort of rhymed with my first name...like Toni Macaroni (although my first name is not Toni nor was the fella's last name Macaroni).

I married an Irish fella so now I sound like I am off the boat from Ireland, because my first name has an Irish flair. People always ask me what part of Ireland I'm from and I always reply "Czechslovakia".

 

[bigbabyblues]

I took DH's name, and it never crossed my mind not to. However, I did not like my maiden name, never had.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

I took DH's name, and it never crossed my mind not to. However, I did not like my maiden name, never had.

Yeah, no way in heck was I keeping mine! I even joked about changing it if I weren't going to marry!

 

[luvmy3]

I dated someone with the last name Hiney. Enough said

 

[SandrA9810]

I dated someone with the last name Hiney. Enough said

LOL... I don't think I want to be a rearend...

Has any one altered their last name by like adding or taking a letter away just to make it easier on others? And not have to correct people constantly. Like from a shmith to smith? Or something like that.

 

[Ember]

I can honestly say I never tried my name out with a boys last name. When I was pretty small, my mum explained that women change their last names when they get married (I think someone we knew was getting married). I think I was around 6 or 7. I thought that was silly and unfair and determined from that point on I wasn't changing a thing about my name if I got married.

As I got older I found I really didn't like the tradition. Without judging individual situations, I think there's more power issues at play in this tradition than most people would like to think about. Had I been with a man who insisted on my taking his name I wouldn't have married him.

DH considered taking my name, but in the end we both kept our names. Should children ever be part of the picture, DH has said he will change his name so my name becomes our family name. He has been put down and insulted for this, which only goes to show that there's more to the issue of changing names than just a bunch of new letters.

 

[AustinTink]

I was eager to take my husband's name because my maiden name is very unusual and difficult to spell. Pair that with a sort of obscure first name, and I spent the first 22 years of my life spelling both first and last name.

Yep, that's me. My maiden name is beautiful if you pronounce it correctly. Unfortunately nobody ever did. And, spelling it, forget that! I'm happy to have married into a very easy, common last name.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I can honestly say I never tried my name out with a boys last name. When I was pretty small, my mum explained that women change their last names when they get married (I think someone we knew was getting married). I think I was around 6 or 7. I thought that was silly and unfair and determined from that point on I wasn't changing a thing about my name if I got married.

As I got older I found I really didn't like the tradition. Without judging individual situations, I think there's more power issues at play in this tradition than most people would like to think about. Had I been with a man who insisted on my taking his name I wouldn't have married him.

DH considered taking my name, but in the end we both kept our names. Should children ever be part of the picture, DH has said he will change his name so my name becomes our family name. He has been put down and insulted for this, which only goes to show that there's more to the issue of changing names than just a bunch of new letters.

I used to work with a man who took his wife's name when they married. His reasoning was that he had several brothers, but his wife was one of 3 girls; the other 2 had taken their husbands' names. He thought her name would die out, so he changed his instead.

 

[hereyago]

My maiden name was Wood.so i would get insert my first name wood when no one else wood. so my married name is Jackson,which I kept after divorcing, so I get to get retro Janet Jackson and say "Ms. Jackson if you are nasty".

 

[NHdisneylover]

I can honestly say I never tried my name out with a boys last name. When I was pretty small, my mum explained that women change their last names when they get married (I think someone we knew was getting married). I think I was around 6 or 7. I thought that was silly and unfair and determined from that point on I wasn't changing a thing about my name if I got married.

As I got older I found I really didn't like the tradition. Without judging individual situations, I think there's more power issues at play in this tradition than most people would like to think about. Had I been with a man who insisted on my taking his name I wouldn't have married him.

DH considered taking my name, but in the end we both kept our names. Should children ever be part of the picture, DH has said he will change his name so my name becomes our family name. He has been put down and insulted for this, which only goes to show that there's more to the issue of changing names than just a bunch of new letters.

That is just terrible--your poor DH.
As I said before, my former minister had changed his last name to his wife's. HIs reasoning was that she already had a child who used her last name (she was 10 or so when they married) so why should 2 people change their name (or have the school confusions of having different names) when he, just one person, could change his. I think his dad gave him grief but no one else did.

I always thought my last name was boring, so I was happy to change it, and having taught it IS easier when the parents and kids all have the same name (but it is not that hard when they don't)--but I think it is silly that in this day and age it matters who changes to which one.

 

[Pigeon]

I would never have changed my last name to my husband's last name, period. Not just my husband's last name--any man's.

We certainly hope our dds don't, either. But of course, that's not our decision to make.

 

[Ember]

That is just terrible--your poor DH.

...

I always thought my last name was boring, so I was happy to change it, and having taught it IS easier when the parents and kids all have the same name (but it is not that hard when they don't)--but I think it is silly that in this day and age it matters who changes to which one.

It was a wake up call. Other than my personal distaste for changing my name, I never really thought anything of it. But then I got comments from people about how we weren't "really" married if I didn't change my name. (Whatever the heck that means!) Or about how we wouldn't be as close. (Because intimacy is based on names?)

But the comments DH has gotten, from both men and women, have been shocking. He has been called less of a man, stupid, and many unflattering terms that mean he is under my control. I am shocked there are people who believe this in our day and age! But it lead me to believe that in any case where someone would look down on or think less of a man for changing his name, it's a power issue at play. If he is "less of a man" for taking my name, it's pretty simple to take that to the conclusion that I would be less as well for taking his name. If we were truly equal then the wouldn't matter who, if anyone, changed their name.