That’s not my name…
They call me Stacy… Okay, well no one actually calls me Stacy and I don’t know what I want to be called after August 2009. After Miss Cheese’s name changing post I tried really hard to avoid thinking about our own situation. Since I haven’t made the decision yet (though I have reserved all possible email choices) I thought I’d share what other people in my life have decided.
- My friends Holly and Mike were recently married and went through the same debate as most couples have gone through. She wasn’t sure about changing her name, he wanted them to share a last name and they wanted their future children to share their names. They both decided to hyphenate their last names to become Holly and Mike Jones-Smith
- Possibly the most original idea I’ve ever heard? Make up a last name. MOH MB’s friend’s last name is Posil. His mother’s last name is Polovvy and his father’s last name is Silverman. Get it, Po-sil? They each retained their pre-married names and their child received a combination of their names. I suppose you could always create a family name for the two of you as well.
- My friend Stephanie married into a culture where you take your husband’s first and last name. Which would make her Stephanie Jay Kapadia. She really likes her middle name (her first name was chosen by her mother, her middle name was chosen by her father) and she didn’t want to get rid of it, nor did she want her husband’s name as her middle name. She ultimately decided to take on her husband’s last name and keep her own middle name. Since she was able to retain her middle name she didn’t feel as though she needed her maiden name.
- My sister stayed with her maiden name because she felt it was such a hassle to go through all the paperwork required to change. She says she’ll change it when they’re ready to have children so their whole family will have her husband’s last name.
As for us? Every family member in my generation is a girl, so I really do worry about our family name dying out. I can remember clear as yesterday learning about someone with my last name in 4th grade. I ran home and made my mother find our genealogy to see if we were related. Like Miss Peep Toe, I enjoy being on that first page of google results. Plus according to this site (thanks mrstye!), there is only 1 person in the entire United States with my name. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but I think it’s pretty neat and I don’t want to lose the history or individuality that comes with it.
Have you decided to go the non traditional route?
