aredheadsguide

I haven’t read all of the comments, so apologies if I’m just repeating things others have said.  The manfriend and I are not married, but are talking about it, and have had at least one heated discussion about the name thing.  Long story short, I’m an only child and I don’t have any cousins on my dad’s side, so my last name dies with me.  I earned a college degree with this name and have used it professionally for five years, and bought a house in this name.  I always assumed that at the most, I would hyphenate my name.  The manfriend HATED this idea. He was offended at the suggestion of hyphenating because he thought I was rejecting his name.  This is the same guy that grew his hair long and dyed it blonde and lived as a hippie in California for three years as an ultra liberal.  TOTALLY caught me off guard. After tears and long discussions, I’m not sure where we stand on the issue.  I’ve explained to him why I want to keep my name, and I think he respects my reason, he just doesn’t like it.  The best solution I’ve come up with is to just add his name.  So my name would be First Middle Maiden Married, so essentially it would be like having two middle names.  I know he still isn’t a fan of that idea, but the only people who would know I didn’t get rid of my maiden name would be him, me and the DMV.