Other people can do what they want but I wish they would just say 'I changed my name because I liked the tradition' - I refuse to believe that women so often just happen to dislike their surnames, but almost all men like theirs.
Well I didn't go into the abuse and how I also am very happy to live many hundreds of miles away from my family, who have the name I ended up deciding I couldn't stand to keep. I considered changing it previously just to get rid of it but decided changing it on marriage would be less controversial and therefore less likely to open up a load of conflict with them.
Though as I think I made clear in my posts (I know yours wasn't just aimed at mine), I am fully aware of all the things that make me changing my name a terrible choice, or a letdown, or whatever. On balance I'm happy with it though. I do wish I'd had a surname I felt comfortable keeping, though. I don't like it when people assume I changed for any reason other than those I did change it for - which I wouldn't want to share with random acquaintances (or good friends, really).
Just a thought. Might be easier if all adult women were the neutral Ms.
Where I live everyone is (or rather, the equivalent). Which made the people insisting I was Mrs all the more irritating. Mrs doesn't exist here, and my name change happened as an optional extra on the day of my wedding and did not mention any title. Stop fucking telling me I'm a Mrs!