Help me choose my own surname

[Providora]

I'm preparing to divorce, I stupidly changed my name on marriage because my father was an awful person and I didn't want to carry his name anymore.

Of course, now I don't want XH's name either and none of the names in my maternal line of ancestry really appeal. I've decided to create my own name that just mine, not attached to anyone else.

Can you help me with ideas? My rough criteria are:

• Shortish, easy to spell and pronounce, familiar but not super common.
• Flows nicely from a short first name ending with a vowel sound.
• Consistent with my English heritage.
• This is hard to articulate! - but something elegant, with a bit of gravitas, not extravagant or pompous.

Thank you!

Finch

What do you do as job or hobby?
Reader
Gardener
Painter
Hope
(Possibly not Scroller/Blogger)

Austen
Phoenix
Lewis
Blaze
Brooke
Flynn

Darcy
Trammell
Stone

Featherstonehaugh.

Just kidding. I quite like the suggestion of an author e.g. Austen

Baxter
Starling
Blade
Everston
Holloway
Webster
Wellesley
Woodhouse
Morland

Maybe some of those are too long / difficult to spell .

I did once know a family with the surname English, which might fit your criteria.

I like Porter. Sounds English and no nonsense.

Suggested already but I do like Hamilton.
Wells
Forbes
Kennedy
Feldman
Wellington

How about Perfect or Darling?
Actually I love the Bennet suggestion. I’d be a Ms Bennet.

Some real contenders here! Darcy and Holloway sound great with my first name.

Archer

Fox. I love this as a last name.

Knight, it’s my surname and I’ve always loved it. I kept it after I divorced 20 years ago and it’s fits your criteria nicely.

What a lovely 'problem' to have. I like the idea of favourite authors and book characters too, but nothing too obvious like Shakespeare, Dickens or Brontë. And not Trollope!

Austen
Elliot
Hardy
Thorne
Gresham
Harding
Clavering
Crawley
Knightley
Dashwood
Morland
Aubrey

I also like the idea of using a place name: county or town/city/village that has an importance for you.

If you choose your own surname it has to be...
Fossil

@MargaretThursday

If you choose your own surname it has to be... Fossil

This is true. And then whatever you achieve will be down to you and not because of your grandfathers. (Damn that’s a good book.)

Holloway after the jail?

Monroe
Cassidy
Newton

If you choose your own surname it has to be...
Fossil

Don't you have to attend a stage school for that? I must admit I thought about that too.

Clements, as a pp has suggested. Lovely surname.

Reynolds
Thomson
Brookes
Ingram
Harvey
Spencer
Miller
Carter
Sayer
Instrell
Austin

I'd choose something that reflects you and your interests or what you do. Historically people were often named after their jobs or where they came from. I'd prefer that to choosing an unrelated surname.

If I was doing this I would probably with an author or a character from a favourite book. Contenders would be

Montgomery
Blythe
Starr

Lewis
Pevensie

Or, as others have said, a meaningful place, in my case this could be
Cape (after Cape Town)
Brighton
Hampstead

I know someone with the surname Loveday

Always thought it was a good one

Rainbow
Montague
Strong

Lavender