I like it because I think its traditional. Plus, I can't wait to get rid of my last name- it stinks. haha

I'm keeping my last name.

I think it's kinda neat. I really like his family and look forward to sharing my last name with them. I'm still going to keep my last name as a middle name though. Our last name dies with me unfortunately.

I think it will be fun to have the same last night and I am with Le Luxe, I HATE my last name so am definitely ready to trade it in at the first opportunity!

It's a totally sexist practice & there is no way I would take my husband's name. I hate my last name, but I'd rather have a name I hate than participate in this ridiculous practice. I like to pretend like women are equal even if we aren't.

i cannot wait to have my fiances name

I kept my name...

The Husband has a great last name... But I have always had my name, and I intend to keep it as it is.

PLUS... God forbid we should ever get divorced... If I had changed it, and we did get un-hitched, I would have to SUE for the right to use my maiden name.

I don't think a lot of woman realize that when they go and change the name. Should you ever get divorced (and 50% of us do), you have to fill out a ton of paperwork to change your name back.

So not worth it, in my opinion.

Im married, kept my last name and he did not mind. I would feel so weird, specially since I come from a completely different place where this is not practiced. It would not feel like it is me when I would introduce myself...

i'm going to add his name after mine, without a hyphenate
that's what my aunt did and it's perfect. it unites the family but allows you to retain your own name.

I think two people that are married should have the same last name for the children's sake (if they are having any). Makes things easier. You can keep your last name for business and have his last name for personal. OR he can change his name to yours. I think we should all be able to find some kind of compromise. But to each their own.

TheMissus, how realistic and unidealistic of you

i hope this isn't something you're anticipating in the future, however

I love that it symbolizes us joined as one. We are making a home together. And I LOVE being referred to as The 'Smiths.' We're a unit. It wasn't easy to give up my last name, but I love the unified household. And that we'll both share our name with our children.

OR both of you pick a new name!

I am keeping my last name, hands down.
Nguyen (mine) vs Slusarczyk (his) ? Please... LOL

I am going to take my hubby's name. It's tradition and I am a traditionist.

Chubstaa- HA that made me laugh. I would keep mine in some way - whether I keep it as a middle name or not take his. It is part of me and I couldnt bear to lose it. Plus my first name is unique so it would be hard to find a last name that goes.

Chubstaa- HA that made me laugh. I would keep mine in some way - whether I keep it as a middle name or not take his. It is part of me and I couldnt bear to lose it. Plus my first name is unique so it would be hard to find a last name that goes.

I think a woman should take her husbands name since its tradition, however, in my case I chose to hyphenate my name. I did it because my father passed when I was young and we have no males to continue the name I didn't want it to die so I kept it.

umm just a side note if there is a divorce there is not a lot of paper work, all you need to do to change your name is ask the judge to grant a name change in the petition of divorce and it will be granted, then present your divorce decree to whatever places like the SS and DMV and that is it not that hard, i did this a almost two years ago in my decree i asked for my name to be changed to my uncles name who raised me

I have a unique last name right now and I don't really want it to be changed to Cox....

I think when I get married, I'll take his last name, but keep my maiden name as a middle name (and I won't use a hyphen, it drives men mad!). Professionally however, I think I want to keep my maiden name.

I'm tossing my old name out with the bouquet

I wish I would have stuck with my maiden name for my first marriage - such a hassle to get it changed after the divorce, I just stuck with it until I met Mr. Right. Then I had no choice but to take Mr. Right's last name, just to get rid of the ex's. Fortunately, I love my new last name and it fits me well.

For sure for sure keeping my own last name. I don't like the sexism behind the tradition. Also would never have my dad walk me down the aisle as I'm not property to be handed off from one man to another...just my own personal beliefs!

It was very important to both of us that we have the same last name. We discussed us both changing our last names to something completely new, but he has a nice, easy last name so we just kept it. I think it shows a unity of the family. Doesn't matter whether you take his, he takes yours, or you take a new one together.

I've been pondering this decision for the last while... I have a really long name already, 1 first name, 2 middle names and a nice long last name. I love my current last name (O'Connor) because as soon as people meet me they go "Oh, you're irish! What part of Ireland is your family from?" etc etc so if I add my boyfriends last name (Small) I'll have the longest name ever... Also, I use one of my middle names as my first name and it rhymes with Small so that sounds kind of weird... on the other hand I'm 5'1 so it would actually be kind of cute.

Ugh I dont knoooow. I want to take his last name but I dont want to lose mine completely. This it would be alright for me to lose one of my middle names? Argh.

My last name, Teufel, is difficult to say, spell, and means "devil" or the like in German, my German teacher kicked me out of class because she was extremely superstitious. On the other hand, my fiance's last name is Fox. How cute, right? Short, sweet, a fuzzy adorable animal? Easy to spell, who misspells fox? All for changing my name in 29 days myself.

I can't wait to have his last name!!!

I'm going to keep my last name, mostly because I don't like his. And also, because I think it's an outdated and sexist tradition. To each their own, though - I've got no problem with anyone else wanting to change their name.

I'm personally one of those girls who has doodled "Mrs. Susan ______" forever, myself. I don't think Susan Fox sounds weird, really...But Susan Teufel has a flow to it. Oh well. I still rather have his.

if you really identify with your maiden name, then there's no reason you should give that up! as for me, it's just not a big deal. who I am is a lot more than just a last name.

i hate my last name and the association i get to other family members. if i had my mom's last name, i would keep it in my name when i get married.. but i get my dad's name, which i reaaaaaaaaaaally don't like and carries a reputation. no thank you. besides, i really adore Lao last names!

I hyphenated my name and I also did the same thing with our daughter.

my last name is long & hard for other people to pronounce, so i'll get rid of it. i don't feel that attached to my last name, so i wouldn't feel like i was giving up my identity at all.

I think my comment got eaten! Sorry if this posts a million times!

I'll definitely be keeping my last name. I know a lot of people have said that they are traditional and that's why they would change it, but I think it's kind of a sexist tradition! I do want to honor my fiance's family in some kind of way, but I don't think I should change my name to do so!

My last name is moving to be my middle name (since my family never bothers with middle names) and I will be taking on my fiance's name. Plus, I love the idea of taking a super german name instead of my vietnamese name.

My last name has been changed twice already. I was born Ribardiere (my mom got married 9 months pregnant and I was born with his name) then she re-married to whom I consider my dad and he adopted me as Stromberg. I love my dad VERY much, but there's nothing special to me about the name. I plan on taking my bf name when we get married. It just seems simpler and I like the idea of us being Mr and Mrs. you know? Also we plan on owning a jewelry store and naming it his last name so it'll be neat for it to be my last name too

It is a completely sexist tradition and I would never give up my last name. However here in Italy nobody does it any longer, I was quite shocked when I learned that the majority of women in USA do it (as far as I know).

I kept my maiden name with my husband's blessing.

For the past 5 years or so, I've had my mind set on hyphenating mine. My name now is so unique to my family and my culture, that I would hate giving it up; but I also want to show my future husband that I am completely committed to him, so I'd also want to take his. If he doesn't respect that, maybe he's not the name for me.

I wont change it.

I am going to take my last name and make it my middle name so I can still take on my husband's last name like I want, but keep that special part of me. I understand that may not be for everyone because I'm in a special circumstance where I've never gone by my first name, always my middle, so dropping one of my names and changing everything around is something I actually want.

"I kept my maiden name with my husband's blessing." -- GlowingMoon, me too. Also I don't think this poses ANY problems with children, as one poster said. I went to school with a girl whose parents had different last names. Her middle name was her mom's last name and her last name was her dad's last name. Sometimes she would use her full name, sometimes just her first and last. Everyone knew whose child she was. It was a non-issue.

I don't care what anyone else does. I just care if they are critical about my decision.

i would never change my last name. i've been that person behind that name my whole life- how could i want to change that?!

I was more than happy to change my name when I got married. Aside from just being a sucker for traditions and really wanting to share a name with him... I had grown up with a last name that nobody could pronounce and was happy to ditch it.

Can we talk about the fact that we have to choose between our father's name or our husband's name? I don't find the maiden name to be that much less sexist. Darn stupid patriarchal societies....

For those of you who say you want to have the same name as your husband ... would he take yours? That is an option I wish more people considered. And it's very interesting to see men's reactions when you bring it up ... men who seem very open-minded turn out to be very attached to their name and they can never quite explain why ... but they think their wives shouldn't be attached to their own names at all. Hmmmm.

On the "father's name" thing, it's not just my father's name, it's MINE, too.

I had a slightly different problem. My grandmother wanted to have stationary made for me that was going to have my new initials on them- I mentioned that I was thinking of keeping my middle name and dropping my last name. She said absolutely not (even though I pointed out that Emily Post said that anything is acceptable- Only MY grandmother would argue with Emily Post). Her view was that when a woman gets married she becomes First Name, Maiden Name, Married Last Name.
I struggled with it bc my middle name is my mom's maiden name and growing up it was the only unique thing about my entire name and I always loved it. Finally I talked to my older brother about it and he said that it was HIS job to carry on the family name, not mine and he thought it was great that I could keep mom's family name as my middle name.
So thats what I did- and I just didnt tell my grandmother, I let her put the other initials on the stationary. Its my name in the end and I needed to make the choice I felt was right for me.

When I was younger I would play with the my name and my boyfriend's name at the time to see how it would work. But as the reality of it approached, it felt so different, not like fun and games. I did change my last name to my husband's and I'm glad I did, but I do miss my maiden name. The truth of the matter is we both had such common last names it didn't really matter and my name sounds fine either way so why not. It is fun being described as "The W's" instead of Mr. xxx and Mrs. yyy.

I recently got married and did NOT take my hubby's last name. In fact, he was the one who suggested that I keep mine. I like my last name so that was fine by me.