PhD students going in to academia? Need name change help!

Re: PhD students going in to academia? Need name change help!

• nefariousmango

  

  March 2010

  I don't have anything particularly helpful to say, but my advisor and I did have a long chat about this.  She suggested I keep my name because it's less complicated and only really matters if we have kids.  Her experience is that schools call looking for her but ask for "Mrs (husband's name)" and whoever picks up the phone sometimes tells them they have the wrong number, and she thus occasionally misses important calls.
  
   I'm not published so it doesn't matter so much right now, and unless I end up getting credit for some of the research in the lab I work in I will change my name after the wedding.  If I do get published, I'll probably just ask my PI to put my FI's last name.

  

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• sahart323

  

  March 2010

  This is a tough one!  I have to say though, I agree that it is a huge pain to change once you start to publish.  I understand it is important to your FH, is it possible to change it legally but continue to use your maiden name for publishing?  Like a pseudonym.  That way your papers will stay linked to each other in lit searches for your work.  Although, I don't know how that helps when you have two names on your CV. What do you think about changing your name legally but maintain your old name for everything professional?  

  
  

  In my situation, I know that it isn't a big deal to my FH, so he's okay with me not legally changing my name. Socially I'll go by his name, but legally and professionally keep my own.  

  
  

  
  

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• zaneopal member

  

  March 2010

  A woman in another lab on the same floor as mine did the no-hyphenation thing, since she got married two years into her PhD. So you can search her by her maiden name or married name and get both in a pub med.
  
  So pre-marriage publications: Jane Ann Smith (name changed)
  Post-marriage publications: Jane Ann Smith Jones
  
  I've seen it a few times. Though she only uses her maiden name for formal things, like publication. She introduces herself as Jane Jones.
  

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• clearheavens member

  

  March 2010

  I'm in a similar situation.  I would say this:
  
  If career is absolutely #1 or your career would suffer if you were not easily reachable or searchable, change your name among your friends and family but keep your maiden name in formal situations, publications, passport, paperwork.  (I also want to add that in many cultures, women do not change their names.  In Vietnam where I am from, for example, having the same last name is either a coincidence or is like incest or something.  Only the children get the husbands' names.)
  
  If you think that officially changing is important to you, or if you are relatively new in your career, pick the one that is shortest and lets you keep your maiden name.  For me, I would pick Emily Acosta Lewis.  Elizabeth is a beautiful name but as some actresses and female authors have suggested, keeping the name short makes it easier for your name to be remembered and passed along.

  
  
  

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• botticelliangel6

  

  April 2010

  I am strongly considering keeping both my middle name and maiden name (almost like two middle names)....I definitely want to take his name, but I like my middle name.  But, I also don't want to totally abandon my family name.  I was going to go by Lisa A. R. Hoover, and just (in general) initial for my middle name and maiden name.  I got the idea from a past coworker who did that.  I am not published at all though, so it is easier for me. 

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