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April 27, 2006

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Your decision to use Ma'Ayteh as all or part of your pen name sounds good to me. Since I married in college, I always regreted a little that MJ Thompson never graduated. However,I would not like writing Thompson-Dunscombe for my signature.

Whatever you decide all of the Dunscombes (as well as many people not named Dunscombe) love you.

I went through a bit of a quandary about changing my name as well. And it was weird for a while, but what's funny is that now, when I hear my name attached to my maiden name, it doesn't sound right. :)

One thing you could do, if you want, is keep your maiden name for professional purposes, but use your married name everywhere else. I have a couple of girlfriends who've done that. That way, you don't have to go through the hassle of changing your e-mail address, business cards, blah blah blah....

You know, I just realized that Maggie Seaver did that on Growing Pains. For her news anchor job, she was known to the masses as Maggie Malone. Talk about progressive for television!

It took me FOUR YEARS to decide what I was going to do. So for four years I did nothing. At least nothing official. I went by my married name, everyone used it, its even on my drivers license. It was just taking that final step of actually changing it that I was struggling with. But I finally did it and I decided to drop my middle name and use my maiden name, Hall, as my middle name. I don't hyphenate it or anything, but I do use them both so I am Susannah Hall Perry. And I kind of like it.

By the way...Ma'Ayteh is a REALLY awesome name. What's the history on that one?

I've never commented here before, but here goes.

Both my husband and I hyphenated our last names, to Baxter-Kauf. (Mine was originally the Kauf, and we chose that order for strictly aesthetic reasons.) It was kind of a pain in the butt during the process, because although Minnesota (where we got married) has the same space for "Married name" in both slots (unlike a lot of states, apparently, where only the female gets the option to change her name and dudes who want to have to go through a formal name change process), we got a lot of weird looks and snide "well, we know who's in charge here" comments.

It's weird, I've heard numbers that upwards of 85% of women getting married change their names, and most do it without any real thought of other options - but _no one_ assumed that I would be in that percentage. I got asked almost everyday of our engagement (18 months) what I was doing about my name, so I had plenty of opportunities to think about it.

We ended up both changing becuase we couldn't bear not having all the same last name as any potential children, we liked the idea of being a unit, and liked that we had both the history of both of our names while also getting to be the only Baxter-Kaufs on the planet.

The only argument I'd ever heard against hyphenation was that it was awkward, and that seemed like a bad one, and we haven't had any hassles since the one snide comment in the DMV.

Sorry, that was long.

I couldn't decide until the day before the wedding. And I decided to take his name. If I'd been further along in my career, I probably wouldn't have. But I liked the idea of having a common family name.

A friend of mine and her fiance planned to combine their last names to make a brand new one. Her last name was Stephen, his was Miller, so they decided on Stiller. Parental units not too happy, though it really wasn't their business...

The only reason I wanted to keep my last name is because my last name is more popular then Matt's. No one knows his last name. My family is pretty popular and I can get out of a lot of tickets with the Bischoff lasst name. But I just went with tradition and took his name.

Also, I was just wondering if there are going to be chairs at the ceremony. I do not think, me being 8 1/2months pregnant, can stand through the whole thing.

I only have a minute but wanted to let you know that I promise to catch up as soon as I get a chance. I did not forget you tagged me and I will do it as soon as I do the second part of my birth story.
I didn't think twice about taking my husband's last name. My parents are divorced though so I've gone pretty much my whole life with a different last name than my mom, so I wasn't that attached to it. Plus, my hubby is full-blooded Italian so his last name is cool. :-)
Can't wait to catch up.
Good luck with the last minute wedding details.

Funny story from my family on this one.

My mother was all too glad to change her last name. Why?

Her maiden name was sorta, well, embarassing.

No, it wasn't, like, Hitler or anything.

It was...Seeman. Yep, pronounced how you'd figure.

She was all too happy (on that score, at least) to become a Shannon.

You can always use Ma'Ayteh as your kids middle name. My neighbor did that with her kids and it sounds cool and then it's kinda like a hyphen, then your pop's name lives on but then don't forget Meacham for your second childs first name, then you can use your mother-in-laws maiden name and so on......
see that was easy!
Love Auntie Di

Ha ... three years later and I still haven't decided. 'Cause first name mister's last name sounds much better than first name maiden name, but I still can't get past the fact that I'm expected to change my name. It just makes me ... squeamish.

Oh, and I second paintingchef's request for the history on Ma'Ayteh. I agree, it's pretty awesome.

(Where the hell have I been? Reading, but somehow missing the comments box altogether. Sorry friend!)

I'll chime in with everyone else and say that we never had outlet problems in Canada. I'd think you'll be fine. The last time I was in Canada I believe I was about 13. I bought a shirt that said "I'm to sexy for Niagra Falls." (Right Said Fred, anyone?)

I cannot believe your wedding is just two weeks from today!! We can't wait. How's that list coming now? You sound like you're making progress. I still have my little green notebook that I kept all of my wedding to-do lists in. It's nice to look at (me hurriedly writing in caps - PICK UP DRESS ON THURSDAY! as if I'd forget.)

I think you have a great idea with your last name, keeping it for your writing. I was pretty ok with changing mine. It nearly rhymed before, so sometimes people would say Molly Chalie, which I wasn't crazy about. So then I had to do the same to my son, nicknaming him KJ, and then allowing him to rhyme a bit. Nice.

And also, I have every intention of telling you the html crap I played with to mess with my blog layout...but I just haven't gotten there. It was a lot of trial and error.

So now that I've written a comment longer than your entry, here's hoping for a chat soon. :0)

Now as a divorcee, I took back my maiden name. I wish I would have kept it when I got married.

Sorry I've been slacking sister! Dan and I were just talking about the name thing today-I brought it up. I was getting mad at myself for not hyphenating it...

Anywho, Ma'Ayteh will always be ours! ;)

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