all the more fun.

Confusing the families at Christmas is part of the fun! :)

I had a hard time giving up my maiden name, too. It is a very distinct German name that won't live on through my brother...maybe my cousin will be able to pass it on through his son. But I gave it up, finally, for my husband's very common and easier to spell name.

I am so happy for you, Razz. May you two be blessed with many happy years together.

hyphenated surname?

Good in theory, but when Mr and Mrs Jones-Johnson begat Sheila, and Mr and Mrs Bartlebee-Newbonger begat Frank, then Frank and Sheila fall in love and marry, they then become Mr and Mrs Jones-Johnson-Bartlebee-Newbonger.

They begat Mark Jones-Johnson-Bartlebee-Newbonger who marries Carrie Smith-Edwards-Sanchez-Cunningham, and they have a darling baby boy named Max Jones-Johnson-Bartlebee-Newbonger-Smith-Edwards-Sanchez-Cunningham.

And so on. :)

That would be a fun problem for the computer geeks in State Depts of Vital Statistics.
But I think the royalty (Brits ?) have been doing it all along.

I will never have a hyphenated name, if that's your thing, go for it. But after working in customer service, it's too confusing/difficult to set up your account.

For example, even couples with different last names often end up with multiple accounts because our system searches by last name+zip code.

If you send me friends to refer "Mr and Mrs Bob Johnson" can be one account but "Mr Bob Johnson and Mrs Sue Tallywhacker" are two separate referrals, there's just no other way to input it.

Searching a hyphenated last name means that I have to save both parts of your name in my notes, search one and then the other, because my search function can't handle a hypen.

I realize that this is just one company with a terrible computer programmer running the game, but I'm sure a lot of other ones have the same problem.

Plus, if you hyphenate our names, it ends up sounding like a nascar race, and that's just not happening.

Keep your name then. Many women do and the trend is becoming more common. Some women with Phd's do it because of the hassle to change the paperwork. I forget specifically what it was though.

I took my husbands last name, although now that I think about it it really want necessary because we didn't have kids. However the funny thing is, when I spell our name over the phone, oftentimes the person on the other hand will hyphenate it!

Rass, if this is the way your computer system works, it's grounds to dismiss the programmer for incompetence.
What happens
with more than one J_Smith20213 ?
when Jane Smith gets married or divorced or moves ?

I can understand having an indexed look-up like that, but not the unique account identifier.
My condolences... :sniff:

It's not the PhD so much but Academia in general. You make your name through publishing work and being cited in the publications of others. You can't change the name on anything previously published. So you change your name, you're back to square zero.

Beest and I wanted the same name for family reasons. I wanted to keep mine in theory, just because Ilike to rebel, but inpractice I hated it. We tried to come up with a new one we both liked, but it just wasn't worth the effort and I didn't hate his name, so I took it. And then i wrapped it in bacon and it was much better ;) :p:

Since you asked... :D

You can have multiple accounts under the same name, and you are able to update the name on your account...but you can't have the same account under multiple names. For large cities, there's obviously more than one "smith 90210" but if you search that name, and the wife/husband has a different last name, it won't show in the results. (Same for if you're a dummy and created a second account with your work address on file instead of your home address)

And yes, I agree that our entire computing staff is either highly incompetent or completely unaware of how we work, this is just one tiny problem in a sea of billions.

In fact a few months ago, when our IT guy from the UK came over, he sat with me for about an hour, and thus far, all of the suggestions/issues that I discussed with him have been fixed. Go me.

For everyone who doesn't really care how my computer system at work works :)

I plan to take his last name, and I'm happy to do so. I just wanted to express that the ring makes me happy because it's tied to a part of my family that I don't know much about.

In my opinion, because taking the man's last name is the "norm" for the country I happen to live in it's just easier. I realize that some feel it's archaic and some feel like it's the dude trying to oppress you, and some people are just so gosh derned forward thinking that they want their men to take their names, and some people dig the hypen, and some people move it to their middle names so they can hang onto it, and some people create new and improved last names, and some people just have ugly last names they want to get rid of, and...and...and.....

If any of the above is your thing, then go for it. It's just not for me.

My SO has a decent last name, and I'm proud to wear it eventually, it's just a bummer that my last name is over. If the family was worried about it, my dad coulda had more kids. He didn't. Game over.

Ya can't please everyone, so ya gotta please yourself. :thumb: