Comments on: Changing Your Maiden Name After Marriage

By: jennifer

jennifer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:56:50 +0000

I just recently got married and I am confused on the whole name change thing.

By: Manda

Manda — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:03:24 +0000

I was married about a month ago. My husband is very excited about me having his last name… but this just sounds like too much work! I think I’ll just keep my maiden name!

By: Liz Kay

Liz Kay — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:40:51 +0000

@rameshraju, I like it when couples combine their names to represent the new union of their families/identities. Unfortunately my best example of this practice is the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, who ended up cheating on his wife, the former Ms. Raigosa. California used to let women change their names for free, but would charge men $$$ to file the paperwork if they changed their names … now I think that’s changed.

By: rameshraju

rameshraju — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:20:02 +0000

In many traditions women are considered as family’s honor and pride in the society. Most people believe that when a woman replaces her maiden name with her husband’s name, it symbolically resembles that she has started new family and that she has taken the responsibility of conserving her family’s honor and pride in the society. It is a common idea that this tradition keeps unity and feeling of oneness among the family members. Many people say that the adaptability, nobility, sacrifice nature and love on husband of a woman are revealed by this tradition.It is believed that traditions of this type strengthens the family system. This tradition mainly helps to identify a person in the society, like ‘to which family he/she belongs’ etc. Since husband is head and eldest of the family, his father’s family name is taken as the title of the family and all of his members like wife and chlidren bears the same title. However the birth of feminism and women empowerment have resulted in the decline of this tradition presently.This tradition preserves the proper structure of a family system.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:18:03 +0000

In Maryland, I changed my name with no problem at the Social Security Office where they only required my marriage lisence and drivers lisence.

However when I went to the MVA right aftewards, they told me I had to wait 2 days after changing my name w/ the social security offfice before I could change it w/ MVA.

I mention this because the MVA website does not mention this technicality. It only says to bring your marriage certificate.

So don’t try to do both in the same day like I did!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:25:51 +0000

Ricardo – they ask for parents SSN but it is NOT required – at least not in CA.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:32:59 +0000

My husband wants me to use his last name for daily stuff including on my drivers license, but doesnt care about my banking etc etc,…

Does any one know if i will run into a problem if I put my maiden and married name on my DL maybe hypenated, AND on my passport, but NOT change anything with SS or anyone else? I was going to change the DL and passport to his last name only.. but then what if I didnt change my banking and then they ask to see my ID… the names wouldnt match…

I think the name change is totally over rated, but I dont really mind… but I dont want to change it on everything… I’m a notary and have a professional license etc and when I started looking at having to change everything it made me sick lol

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:21:25 +0000

@ Yvette: In Chinese culture women don’t change their surnames

By: Ricardo Roman

Ricardo Roman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:27:28 +0000

My daughter is asking me for my SS# in order to change her name. She said it was for reference??? Anyone ever heard of that one before? Please, I’d like to know.

By: thomas

thomas — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:32:56 +0000

my wife’s grandmother still writes us checks with my wife’s maiden name. I have yet to run into a problem with a bank not cashing the check.

By: Yvette

Yvette — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:44:23 +0000

I’m always shocked to learn that women are still changing their names after marriage. I would think we would have abandoned that patriarchal custom long ago.

By: Lau

Lau — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:16:19 +0000

After all the fun to look forward to, I wonder why I never changed my name!
Hubby’s not too happy about it, but its such a hassle…

Thanks for the list though. If I ever get to it, I’ll know exactly where to and who to call

By: savvy

savvy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:30:48 +0000

When I changed my name, I found that (somewhat alarming) some companies didn’t require any verification (i.e. marriage license or new DL). I called and asked my name to be changed and they did it. That said, I still haven’t changed my name with ShareBuilder because they wanted a notarized form and I didn’t feel like bothering.

By: donna jean

donna jean — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:32:46 +0000

online accounts are a pain, i realize I still haven’t done ING and hope that doesn’t cause too much turmoil this tax season as my name now doesn’t match the 1099 I got.. oops, guess it’s about time to finally get that taken care of.

By: Penelope

Penelope — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:20:04 +0000

OMG! I just sat at the SSN office for TWO AND A HALF HOURS yesterday! Make an appointment with them too and save yourself the time and hassle.

OTOH, DMV took 15 minutes tops…