Since birth (and before birth for many of us) our name identifies us. In some cases, our name is our history and our heritage. Many parents put a lot of consideration into the name of their child. Therefore a woman changing her name after marriage can be major decision.
Many women choose to keep their maiden name for professional reasons and only use their married name for social reasons. Famous singers, movie stars, lawyers, and doctors may choose to keep the name under which they began their career. They fear that they may not be known under a different name.
Many other people keep their maiden name as their middle name. All of their legal documents are changed to read their first name, maiden name, and then married name.
Believe it or not, women have many options for changing their name in today’s society. In this article, I will list the options for changing your name after marriage.
Both partners using the husband’s name (traditional practice)
In this method of changing names, the wife legally changes her name to the husband’s last name.
Both partners keep their own name
In this method the man keeps his original name and the wife keeps her original name.
Both partners us the wife’s name
The husband legally changes his name to the wife’s last name. This method is not as common.
Wife takes husband’s name and keeps maiden name
The wife changes her middle name to her maiden name and takes the man’s last name.
Hyphenated last name
Some women keep their maiden name and their middle name. In this method, they use both last names with a hyphen between.
Choose a new name
It is possible for a couple to choose a completely new last name. If neither wants to keep their last names, the couple can pick a different one.