name change

[littlepurplepil]

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Well, since the hype of match week has died down, I'm sure you 4th yrs are filled with free time while on your "medical complications of underwater basketweaving" end-of-year rotations. 😛 So here's a random question to keep the forum alive: What is your opinion on chaning your name after marriage? As a professional woman would you want to keep your established name or change it to match your husband's? Do you think having the same family name for both parents is important (or conversely, that having two different surnames in the family would be confusing)?

This is a debate of sorts going on within my circle....it seems that the boys say "change!" and many of the girls say "no way!" Curious about how others in the field see the issue.

 

[Psyclops]

Either is fine as long as you don't go with the hyphen! This is for your kids sake.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Well, since the hype of match week has died down, I'm sure you 4th yrs are filled with free time while on your "medical complications of underwater basketweaving" end-of-year rotations. 😛 So here's a random question to keep the forum alive: What is your opinion on chaning your name after marriage? As a professional woman would you want to keep your established name or change it to match your husband's? Do you think having the same family name for both parents is important (or conversely, that having two different surnames in the family would be confusing)?

This is a debate of sorts going on within my circle....it seems that the boys say "change!" and many of the girls say "no way!" Curious about how others in the field see the issue.

If this were an issue in my marriage, I'd have my wife keep the name under which she had passed her boards and maintained her medical license. Changing these things is too danged much hassle. There's enough paperwork already in getting licensed and credentialled when you're using the name you've had all your life!!

 

[detroitdoc]

Is there a way that you could change your name but continue to use your given name in your professional lives (and use you husbands in your personal life). If you legally change your name, do you HAVE to reapply for license, etc or can you just continue to use your given name? I know women who have kept their given names in their practices but took their husbands name. I am not sure how they did that...does anyone know how that would work? It seems like such a great plan.

If this were an issue in my marriage, I'd have my wife keep the name under which she had passed her boards and maintained her medical license. Changing these things is too danged much hassle. There's enough paperwork already in getting licensed and credentialled when you're using the name you've had all your life!!

 

[Poety]

Is there a way that you could change your name but continue to use your given name in your professional lives (and use you husbands in your personal life). If you legally change your name, do you HAVE to reapply for license, etc or can you just continue to use your given name? I know women who have kept their given names in their practices but took their husbands name. I am not sure how they did that...does anyone know how that would work? It seems like such a great plan.

Hi Detroit, I did it by hyphenating - that way I have both and they can see who I was with the previous degrees with the current last name(s) 🙂

Hyphenating is obnoxious I know, but I have a baby so I didn't want her last name to be different from mine, so she has half of it pfftt 😛

 

[Hurricane]

I kept mine. Changing it seemed like a pain in the butt, and I didn't see any reason to change it, aside from "the woman is supposed to change her name" which isn't a very compelling argument IMO. Plus I had already published under my name, and nobody can spell his name, and I like mine better. My husband didn't care as long as future kids have his name (he's the last of his line so to speak - the only boy and his dad died when he was little and he wants to honor him by passing on his name) and that's fine with me. Maybe the kids can have my name as their middle name. I dunno.

I know some people who say they're going to keep their name professionally and use their husband's name socially. I don't get how that works. What if you socialize with people you work with? Too much hassle for me.

I don't like hyphenated names either. I don't know why, but I just don't. And if hyphenation became the norm, we'd have a mess. What if you hyphenate your kid's name, and he/she marries another kid with a hyphenated name? Are the resulting kids going to have four hyphenated last names? 😱

 

[Poety]

My avatar isn't hyphenated, she just has hubby!!! That's funny though - two hyphenators getting together

Jane Gorgiono-Schmidt meet Joe Jackson-Melvern

Baby: Johnny Gorgiono-Schmidt-Jackson-Melvern

 

[Psyclops]

I would still like to speak up for all those children out there who may have to suffer the affliction of having a hyphenated last name in America (in Britain I understand it is quite common). The problem arises in middle school (as most do) when trying to explain to other cheeky smart-alleck 12 and 13 year olds why you have two last names. It places you in the delightful position of either calling your mom stupid or calling everyone elses mom stupid for not sticking up for their own last name. What's a pre-teen to do? Trust me it adds extra pimples.

So then if you do decide to go with one, which should you choose? Should everyone bow down to our masogenistic cultural customs and just give them their father's last name? Or should we give them the mothers last name? Which is only the mother's father's last name. So which should it be, the father of the child's last name, or the mother's father's last name?

 

[Hurricane]

So then if you do decide to go with one, which should you choose? Should everyone bow down to our masogenistic cultural customs and just give them their father's last name? Or should we give them the mothers last name? Which is only the mother's father's last name. So which should it be, the father of the child's last name, or the mother's father's last name?

I think we should dispense with last names altogether. We should all take our cue from The Artist Formerly Known As Prince and assign each child a unique symbol at birth. Who needs a name when a font will suffice? Bam, problem solved.

 

[Poety]

I would still like to speak up for all those children out there who may have to suffer the affliction of having a hyphenated last name in America (in Britain I understand it is quite common). The problem arises in middle school (as most do) when trying to explain to other cheeky smart-alleck 12 and 13 year olds why you have two last names. It places you in the delightful position of either calling your mom stupid or calling everyone elses mom stupid for not sticking up for their own last name. What's a pre-teen to do? Trust me it adds extra pimples.

So then if you do decide to go with one, which should you choose? Should everyone bow down to our masogenistic cultural customs and just give them their father's last name? Or should we give them the mothers last name? Which is only the mother's father's last name. So which should it be, the father of the child's last name, or the mother's father's last name?

Well, I'm an anarchist. I have my great grandmothers last name, hyphenated with my husbands last name. My daughter has her fathers last name (NO HYPHEN THATS DUMB!)

So.... I guess you could do what I did 😛

ETA: shes also got my middle name pfffttt which is my grandmothers first name 😕

 

[megsMS]

My mother and her family don't give baby girls middle names...that way when they get married they just use their maiden name as their middle name, no hyphen. I did that and now I just write it all out (may be easier for me b/c my maiden name was short). Also, when you forget to write your new last name down and just write your old one, all you have to do is tack the new one on at the end. Makes life so easy!

 

[drbon]

my fiance and i are in this predicament right now....we're getting married in two months and i still haven't figured out what to do. he wants me to change my name, i don't really want to....ideally i would like to use his name socially and my name professionally (i had an MD prof in undergrad that had that arrangement) but like the rest of you, i don't know how that works either....and to make it more complicated, we're still in med school so i don't even have a license yet. so if i take on his name right now, will my degree and license be in his name? or can i just keep using my name in school and on the boards and stuff???

 

[Solideliquid]

Well, I'm an anarchist. I have my great grandmothers last name, hyphenated with my husbands last name. My daughter has her fathers last name (NO HYPHEN THATS DUMB!)

So.... I guess you could do what I did 😛

ETA: shes also got my middle name pfffttt which is my grandmothers first name 😕

I think I had an easier time figuring out step 1!

 

[Hurricane]

my fiance and i are in this predicament right now....we're getting married in two months and i still haven't figured out what to do. he wants me to change my name, i don't really want to....ideally i would like to use his name socially and my name professionally (i had an MD prof in undergrad that had that arrangement) but like the rest of you, i don't know how that works either....and to make it more complicated, we're still in med school so i don't even have a license yet. so if i take on his name right now, will my degree and license be in his name? or can i just keep using my name in school and on the boards and stuff???

Tell him you'll take his name... but only if he does all of the research and paperwork for you to change your name, and do the work to have all of the licensing stuff work out too. 20 bucks says that once he sees what a pain in the butt it is, he'll tell you to go ahead and keep your name!

 

[drbon]

hahaha, true!!!

 

[ORBITAL BEBOP]

for Hurricane!