Keeping maiden name legally

[HappyKite2067]

I’m not quite sure where to put this but…

I want to use my married name at work and in my personal life but I want to keep my maiden name legally.

I have people at work who use their maiden name but legally are their married name, I just want the reverse. Is that possible?

I might legally change it one day, but for now I want to start using my married name.

Ok so you would tell work, family and friends that you are Mrs X but you don’t change any documents - so on passport, bank docs, etc you are still Miss/Ms Y?

Yes you could do. You’d just have to remember to tell people that your legal name is still Miss Y if it’s ever relevant - eg if anyone ever books a flight for you, or makes a bank transfer. And if you ever need to prove your ID it could make it more tricky as all your ID will be in maiden name, but I guess people who do it the other way round also have that issue.

Yes that’s what I’m hoping to do. Quite happy to say to work this isn’t a legal change - I’m not trying to cover up not legally changing it- but I do want to change it personally and professionally.

I know it sounds a bit bizarre but it would take me some time to change everything over, I’ve got some trips booked in the next six months and I just don’t want to worry about changing my legal documents for now. But I do want to start using my married name and then I was wondering do I even need to do all the legal formalities (or at least only when it’s a convenient time?).

You can call yourself whatever you want! If you wanted to ask friends and colleagues to call you by a different first name, you could, without changing anything legally.

You just need to keep track of the times when your legal name will be the relevant one which is generally anything where ID is used. I have a colleague who was caught out by a work flight being booked in her work name but her passport had her previous name.

I haven’t changed my name for anything and it’s a lot simpler all round

Just keep your name OP.

What legal jurisdiction are you in? It matters.
In Scotland you and your husband can use both names legally, without needing any paperwork other than marriage itself. From posts I've read on here I'm guessing that might not be the case in other jurisdictions.

Like a PP I just didn't change anything legal or financial though some people do call me Mrs Hisname, for example at our children's school and I don't bother correcting them.
The only issue I can think of that might potentially be a problem with using a name that is not your "official" one at work is payroll. I don't know for sure but I can imagine that if you are on then payroll as Mrs X they'd expect to be paying into a bank account in that name and your pension contributions, tax to be paid in that name etc. I wonder what happens if you're paying NI contributions in one name but, say, claiming child benefit in another? There's probably a way round it - I'd ask your HR dept and/or payroll for advice.

This feels like a bit more effort than just changing your name legally for everything, and a lot more effort than not changing it at all.

If your travel is all booked then I think it would be fine anyway, just don’t change your passport until you get back.

I would recommend not changing your name at all ( much easier al round) but if you want to, it is my understanding that you can just start using your married name. There is no legal name change as such if you are married. You can use either your name or your married name or both.

I use a mix of married and maiden. HR are aware for work purposes, the only time it can be confusing is guest lists or restaurants when I have to remember which name I booked in.

It's my understanding that you can use both names legally but I may be wrong about this.

I changed my name for everything, but I didn’t update my passport until it expired about 5 years after we got married. I just booked travel in my maiden name until I renewed my passport. Most places just asked for my marriage certificate as evidence for the name change though so I could have just changed at select places if I so chose.

There's no such thing as your legal name. It makes sense to stick to one name for all official stuff but you can use any name you like the rest of the time. E.g. I am my married name (but with maiden name as an extra middle name) on driving licence, at the bank, on electoral roll and on passport. At work I am known by my maiden name. For all other aspects of life I use the American/Spanish tradition of both names e.g. Marjorie Smith Jones.

That’s an interesting one. Where I work they had a revision around 18 months ago where, unless you had joined in last few years under current ID process, you were required to be reverified. They changed everyone’s email and Teams ID to first, middle, last name. Didn’t impact me, apart from the change in email to include middle name, as I had joined under current ID check process. However, many colleagues previously had their email/Teams as their ‘known by’ name vs official name. They were mainly people with non-western names who had chosen Western names to be known as. It’s confusing as hell as they still go by their ‘known as’ names so it’s a real chore trying to remember/look up what their ‘official’ name is when going to send them a mail/Teams chat. Supposedly it was done for security purposes or some such.

Just be careful though as this can lead to expensive mistakes. Flights booked in wrong name as an example

Legally you can use both names, where you want to use your married you usually just have to give a copy of your marriage certificate as proof that you can use the married name. Most women I know use a mixture of maiden and married

I didn’t change my name at work for a couple of years. I changed it legally but it took a while to get round to changing all my documents and ID. I changed my driving license first but it was several years before I changed my passport as I’d got a new one a couple of years before marriage and didn’t want to pay again! For flights etc I had one ID with each name so it was no problem. Where I live you can use either name legally.

It didn’t cause any problems with my pay or anything either, my bank account was technically a different name from what work had me on payroll as, but nothing ever happened.