Anna

I understand all of the reasons people have for wanting to keep their maiden name…careers, personal identification, just not wanting to change it.  I don’t think it makes you more progressive to keep your name or less progressive to take your husband’s name.  It’s a personal choice.  I have a colleague who took his wife’s last name.

For me personally, I would take my potential future husband’s name unless it was something really awful like buttgobbler or something.  If that were the case, I would want to make up a better name that we can both share (I like Badass or Motherfucker, let me know which one you don’t use! 🙂 )  I don’t have a terrific career and I am estranged from my parents so I have no loyalty to my patriarchal maiden name.  Plus, hyphenating gets really confusing and long-winded.  I work in customer service and I just groan when an account comes up with two super long hyphenated names.  “Good evening Ms. Xylophone-Supercalafragalisticexpieladocious.  How are you today?”