Last names/maiden names...

pinkdaisy226

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Don't worry, I'm not asking you to post your last name here, lol!

I was just wondering, mainly for those of you who are married/engaged - do any of you have a real sense of pride when it comes to your last name?

When I got married, I did not want to give up my last name. It's not that it's such a great name or anything, but it's a good solid name, it's British and I take pride in that part of me... I kept it as my middle name as a compromise.

Now that I'm getting divorced, people ask me if I'm going to keep my married name and I said no, I'm going back to my maiden name. Today in my classroom I walked around the room and started erasing my married name off of things that are mine and putting my maiden name on it. For some reason it made me sad but happy at the same time.

Am I weird?
 

catloverin_ks

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I just have my married name, but I think if I ever got divorced, I might use my maiden name. ( I guess I can do that)
 

katiemae1277

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both my former married name and my now again maiden name are solid German names, of which I am mostly, but neither of them are "great" names
, but my maiden name is MY name, if I ever get married again I will not change it..... I, like you, had only been married a short time and had no kids, so there was no reason for me to keep my married name
 

mooficat

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No I dont think you are weird, our name (s) are our sense of identity, so your sadness will be from the sadness you might be feeling about your divorce and of course your happiness is from the fact that you will regain your family name


I took my husbands name, which I am very happy about
 
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pinkdaisy226

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Originally Posted by catloverin_ks

I just have my married name, but I think if I ever got divorced, I might use my maiden name. ( I guess I can do that)
You can do that... when I filed out the papers, it asks you what you would want your name changed to, if you wanted to change it. I put First Name and Maiden Name... so I wonder if I lost my middle name forever then, lol!

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

both my former married name and my now again maiden name are solid German names, of which I am mostly, but neither of them are "great" names
, but my maiden name is MY name, if I ever get married again I will not change it..... I, like you, had only been married a short time and had no kids, so there was no reason for me to keep my married name
I wonder if I got remarried, if I would change my name again. I mean, that's obviously not going to happen any time soon... but I wonder...
 

mom2salemisis

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when i got married the first time i changed my last name to his when we got divorced (it was super nasty) i took my maiden name back. cheyenne never had her daddys last name so before we got married we had her name changed but i wanted her to be able to keep my last name as well so we had it hyphenated (SP?) she has my maiden name - her dads name.. i took his name when we FINIALLY got married lol
 

momof3rugratz

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no not weird you want your identity back as a single person not a married women
I think you are 100% normal.
 

crazyforinfo

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Mom took her maiden name back when she got divorced. I had my dad's last name. I hated it for years. It would have cost to much to change to mom's. We found out she would have to "adopt" me & pay a few hundred to change my name. Of course my dad could have faught it.

Growing up I couldn't wait to change my name since I associated it with my dad who I don't talk to. When I got married I felt the opposite. The last name was now me and I felt like I was loosing my identity. Weird isn't it. If I was to divorce (god I hope not) I would take my mom's name.
 

pookie-poo

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When I got married, I felt a certain loss of identity when I changed my name, but eventually got over it. Then I ended up divorced 8 years later. I was still so in love with my husband that I didn't change my name back. I think I secretly wanted to try to work things out with him. It's been 18 years and he's re-married, with children, even. There's absolutely no chance that we'd get back together, and I wouldn't even consider it anymore. My married name is now my identity. All of my degrees are in my married name, my house, my car, everything I am...so I guess it's me now. Besides, no one could pronounce my maiden name and no body ever mispronounces my married name



Pookie & the girls
 

ugaimes

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Growing up, I couldn't wait to marry someone with a "normal" last name, so when Bradley and I got married, I couldn't drop my maiden name fast enough! Then, people at work kept calling me by my maiden name. I'd ask them why b/c my married name is so much more common and easier to pronounce, but they all told me that my maiden name was more memorable because it was so different!
So, while I love being married and I love my new last name, I do find myself missing my maiden name just a bit- it kind of feels like I lost part of who I am when I let go of that name.
 

phenomsmom

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I am going to take my husbands name when I get married. My last name now is german anda lot of people mispronounce it even though its common. It bugs me. Lee's name is common and very easy to pronounce.
 

momofmany

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I kept my maiden name the first marriage - must have had an intuitive insight that we were destined for divorce. My ex argued about it when I made the decision not to take his, and I asked him to consider taking mine. His response of "why should I change my name, I've had it my entire life?" clinched my argument. I guess it was OK for me to do it but not him.

I took my current husband's name when we married 17 years ago and it looks like I'll have this name the rest of my life. I considered combining the 2 names, but we both had names with 9 letters and I didn't want to have a 19 letter last name (with hyphen). It was weird to have a different name at first but after all of these years, I've pretty much identified with my married name. I went from a strong German name to a strong Polish name. Both are equally misspelled and mispronounced.

The coolest thing I've seen is a couple who decided to come up with a new family name together. They hyphenated their names and both used it.
 

sillyjilly

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I had a very annoying Polish name so I was more than happy to take my husbands very easy yet unique normal name! I'm not polish anymore, i'm not polish anymore!!!
well not on paper it doesn't look like it!
 

trouts mom

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I can't wait to give up mine!! Mine is awful, not ladylike at all


I feel like getting married just to lose the name
 

emrldsky

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Nuh uh...might give me away!
I'm still in the process of officially changing my name everywhere to my husband's last name. I love my maiden name, but I feel a sense of pride to take his. I couldn't do the hyphenated thing, because both last names are nouns, lol (so, I would have three nouns in my full name...).

But at least I get to keep my initials, so anything that was monogrammed is still accurate.
 

littleraven7726

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i changed my last name when i got married. my maiden name is irish and so is my first name. people were always screwing up my name thinking my last name was my first, plus everyone mispronounces my first name. now i just deal with mispronunciations of my first name. i can deal with that.
 
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