Did you change your surname upon marriage?

[Gryffindor]

Just that, really? And if you did, did you keep your maiden name professionally?

DH and I have been married a while now but through a combination of feminist thoughts, laziness and professional reputation I haven't changed. All married female friends have changed theirs, often with mind boggling speed!

Aibu to ask?

I got married 9 months ago and didn't change my name. If we ever have a baby we will both keep our names and double barrel the baby's.

Yes, I tagged DH's name on the end of my name.

I kept my name. Always knew I would - in fact I told my mum when I was little that I would be keeping my own name so I've obviously always felt strongly about it !

The DCs have my husband's surname, though.

No, for feminist reasons really. I used to say it was because I was known professionally as Ms Timpetill, but now I am older -and- -wiser- I give them the real reason. If people persist in asking why not, I remind them that it's not compulsory -with- -an- -eye- -roll-. I am a bit of an unusual case with my friends in actually having got married, about half of my coupled up friends are not married -arty-, -academic- -types-

wish I could figure out these jeffing strikethroughs

No, never crossed my mind to do it. None of the women I know of my age did.

Bizarrely, with only one exception, their children all have the man's surname, even the ones who never got married for feminist reasons.

Our deal on children was girls would have my surname, boys his.

Our DDs have the double barrelled ñame but in practice the 3 of us now use my ñame because it's easier were we live. DH isn't half as botherd as he thought he would be before we got married.

That's because he was worried about FIL's reaction moré than actully bothered by me not giving up my ñame.

chocolate

Yes, I changed my name professionally and personally. I have publications under my maiden and married names, I keep a copy of my marriage certificate with my portfolio and degree certificates as my first 2 degrees and postgrad qualifications were all in my maiden name.

Our children have my DH surname as well.

We also closed both individual bank accounts and opened one joint account as Mr & Mrs DHname.

Because I wanted to. I liked the idea of us being a new family unit with the same name, I liked DH name more than mine (which wasn't mine really, it was my father's and his father's, etc etc). I have a brother who will keep my old family name line going, DH was the only son of his father and really wanted to keep his name going, our children have the same name as both of us ... I just don't feel defined by a surname. DH wanted me to take his name, I like it and had no strong feelings regarding keeping mine, so I changed.

I also had a colleague who sat an exam in her maiden name (she hadn't changed at work, just personally) - but we needed photo ID on our desks and her passport / driving license were in her married name. Caused an extra level of hassle with seriously hard exams that she could have done without.

I didn't as well. That's because DH and I have the same surname win win.

I changed mine. I find it simple that my family unit shares one name which makes it hard for other people to mess up and get confused. The one thing that I haven't changed is my 9assport as I objected to the cost of having to replace a nearly new passport

Double barrelling would have sounded ridiculous with our combination of names.

It was a bit odd getting used to a new name, but who I am has evolved, and Mrs Mook is not quite the same person as Miss preMook.

Kept mine! I can't imagine being called anything else, it was never gonna happen! And it's made absolutely no difference!

I didn't change mine. DD has DH's surname as her surname and mine as an additional middle name. I would recommend doing this as it makes travelling a bit simpler.

I am getting married next year and would like to change mine, particularly if we have children so that we are all named as one family unit as someone else mentioned above. Practically though I'm not sure if it's possible - I have publications in my maiden name and we live abroad so replacing passport would have me stranded here while it was done and I'd need a new work visa issued in a new name - so leaving my maiden name for work and changing it for official things won't help.
Has anyone left themselves as miss/dr maidename officially but just referred to themselves as Mrs marriedname socially?

Boleh the only thing I would advise if you're going to use 2 names is make sure you have photo ID in both names :)

No
But I did 8 years later when ds was on the way. I had an overwhelming desire for he, DH and I to have a "family name". Tbh my Gaelic maiden name is a pita to spell out the whole time. Ds is now nearly 6, ANC has a little sister, and I am Mrs Married Name at home and Dr Maiden Name at work.

Yes and no. All paperwork, banks etc are in maiden name. The only thing I have changed is my passport, so that it matches DH and DS. We travel a lot so I thought it best that we all have the same surname. I use DH surname socially.

Not for any feminist reasons, more that it's simply too much of a hassle to change everything. Plus in Italy women keep their maiden names so culturally I'm following the norm there.

I kept my maiden name for work and am mrs married name for everything else. I have a very unusual maiden name so wanted to keep it.
You do realise that people in 100 years time doing genealogy will struggle. My father has done our family tree back to the early 1800 s and if people didn't change their names to the family name it would be very difficult to do this

Yes, but only because I hated my surname.
We had talked about picking a completely new name, but in the end I just changed.
I sometimes regret it, mainly because his family are a bunch of fuckers and I dont like having 'their' name IYSWIM?
Mil still puts 'MrsDH ' on cards

I changed because it felt romantic (sad) and also because my name began with W. This meant I was always last for everything at school that was done alphabetically. My husband's name began with B. Yay!! Get to the front of the line!

Both me and dp will change our names ( double barrel both surnames) when we get married in the summer. Ds already has both names.

Me and dp are from different countries, I have a very English surname and dp has a very Swedish surname, we wanted our name to reflect our family's cultural mix but also if dc want to apply for jobs using only their Swedish name ( there is some prejudice against people with foreign names in Sweden) they can as the Swedish name is the last name.

No I didn't change mine, dh didn't really want me too - he felt it was me, the person he fell in love with. Dcs have Dh's name, we decided that on the basis of continuing on the family name - otherwise we'd have tossed for it. People still get confused that my name isn't the same as dcs and people assume dh and I aren't married. My old aunt asked why I bothered getting married - daft notion really, that name changing matters, we got married as we were madly in love - 15 years later we still are!

Two of my dsis kept their maiden name professionally. One dsis made the complete change and regretted it as her new surname was much longer and this annoys her as she signs many documents and it wastes a good few seconds every day!

Changed name. Took ages to get all the paperwork done for driver's license, passport, etc etc. Total faff but worth it in the long run. I do like having the same surname as my husband and our children.

Totally up to the individual. I've seen people do the Clark Kent thing, go double-barreled, or switch to both having the same name (either husband of wife's).

Variation on the theme. How many of you changed because it was the norm, now wish you hadn't, but can't be arsed with the paperwork and explanations if you change back?

I changed mine. I wanted to be a unit with my DH and children rather than a unit with my brothers. It is personal choice and no big deal either way.