Name Change

caitpm · August 2010

i have a name change issue i'd like opinions on: i've read posts about changing one's middle name to one's maiden name (from jane ann doe to jane doe smith), which is what i would like to do-except for one thing: my middle name is my mother's maiden name. i would like to keep both her maiden name(my current middle name) and my maiden name. my queston is, for anyone with experience in the complicated-name department: is it easier to have 2 middle names, or to hyphenate a middle name? i don't want to hyphenate my last name.

mysticl · August 2010

I have known people with 2 middle names. But check the name change laws in your state. The marriage license changes your last name, it may not be valid for changing/adding a middle name. In which case you will have to petition the court and pay court costs to change your name if you want it to be a legal name.

Meagan78 · August 2010

I did the two middle name thing for first marriage. So my SS card had first name, middle name, maiden name. married name.

twilight.rose · August 2010

I kept all four names. Although I just kept both my maiden name and my married name as last names (unhyphenated).

[Deleted User] · August 2010

I dropped my maiden last and added my married last. Kept my middle name.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown · August 2010

My Fi has had two middle names since birth and he's totally fine with it. He uses the initial of the first middle name as his middle initial on forms. He uses his full name on things like diplomas and our wedding invitations.

JCM10 · August 2010

I'd just change mine to 4 names (no hyphen...I've never seen that done)

anna.oskar · August 2010

Mine is:

First name - Middle name - Maiden as Middle - new Last. No one questioned it at all at the SS office or DMV

desisweetie · August 2010

My fiance's last name is: S-K...most of his students call him Mr. K. It's already a long last name, and it's a hyphenation of both his parents' last names. How wrong would it be to just have K, and drop his S? I am okay to drop my name, but I don't want to take on 2 names! I don't know what to do. He and I discussed it, and it didn't go over well. I have been living my entire life with a long and complex last name, this is longer...and I don't want our kids to have to deal with a hyphenated last name.

skyler1108 · August 2010

I have two middle names, both of which were given to me at birth. Usually my legal document either say first name C. last name or first name C.J. last name. You should not have any problem with it being to confusing but I have lived with 2 middle names my whole life so maybe I am just used to it!

Fred13 · August 2010

My FI's Aunt changed her Maiden name to her last name, but kept her orginal middle name also. She's one of several people I know who have two middle names. It's not so bad and can be really kind of fun. Especially in your case, it's like you have generations of geneology in one name. Very sweet.

marinabreeze · August 2010

I've had two middle names since birth. Both names are on my SS card, college degree, etc., no hyphen. On forms that only allow for an intial, like driver's license, etc., I use the first letter of my first middle name. So living with two middle names is fine. I only had an issue with it once, when I first got my driver's license (in a different state than the one in which I currently reside), the secretary of state's office made me hyphenate my middle name on the license. But that's the only time it's ever been an issue.

However, I'm not so sure how hard it would be to change your middle name once you get married, at least in a legal sense (since I'm not changing my middle names, just taking FI's last name). Good luck, though.

LeahDVM2003 · August 2010

LIke PP, I have had no problems with a double middle name. I actually have five--first, middle, confirmation, hypenated last name. I went to court to do this when I turned 18. At that time, I tripped every computer on the planet. Generally, I ended up with first, middle initial, both last names w/ no space and no hypen. Be careful if they make you drop the hypen--I did have problems at one bank, who kept using only my second last name. They could never find my account. If the hypen can't be used, just cram the names together into one. As computers have become more adept at hypens, it's less and less of a problem. In most cases, though, I still can have only one middle initial. And the Secretary of State had to hypenate my middle name for it to be legal on my driver's license. One word of advice--count the letters and spaces! Only two more letters, and it wouldn't fit. When I asked them what would happen, they weren't sure, as it is requred that my entire legal name be on my license.

BTW, I intend to drop my hypenated last name, and take his last name. I am using at-home cards to make this clear, as I'm already fielding that question, and we haven't even set at date!

Has anyone else w/ hypens noticed that many folks don't know what a hypen is? I often see people at the dry cleaners and such write down an apostraphe, or even a slash!

2dBride · August 2010

You can pretty much use any combination of your birth name and his name that you want. My mother had three middle names at birth. (They kept passing down the mother's family name as a middle name for the next generation.) When she got married, she made her former last name into a fourth middle name, and took my father's surname.

Oh, and marriage does not change your last name. Enough women decide to change their names at marriage that US law permits this without a formal name change. However, if you don't take the steps to make the change, your name will stay the same as it has always been.

Name Change

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