Changing your name

yatesrallo · May 2013

I've been doing a lot of research and it appears as though you an keep both your maiden name and married name and use them interchangeably. For professional reasons I'd like to keep my maiden name but would also like to use my husbands name socially. I grew up in a household where my mom was legally able to be Mrs. Maidenname Married name where she could also go by Mrs. Maidenname or Mrs. Married name. She can't remember how she went about this since it was 40 years ago but I was wondering if anyone knows how to go about doing it officially.

Thanks!

lyndausvi · May 2013

I'm legally Lynda maidenlast hislast (no hyphen). Socially I go by just Ms Hislastname. I know a lot of women who are legally one , the other or both, but professionally or social go by the opposite.

ETA - depending on your profession you might have to use your legal name. For example Jennifer Ansiton legally changed her name to Jennifer Pitt, but professionally she still went by Ansiton. If you are lawyer and have to sign legal documents you have to go by your legal name at work. However, you can go by your DH's name in social situation.

QueerFemme · May 2013

In Response to Changing your name:
[QUOTE]I've been doing a lot of research and it appears as though you an keep both your maiden name and married name and use them interchangeably. For professional reasons I'd like to keep my maiden name but would also like to use my husbands name socially. I grew up in a household where my mom was legally able to be Mrs. Maidenname Married name where she could also go by Mrs. Maidenname or Mrs. Married name. She can't remember how she went about this since it was 40 years ago but I was wondering if anyone knows how to go about doing it officially. Thanks!
Posted by yatesrallo[/QUOTE]

Legally, you need to decide which one you are going to be, or be both and hyphenate. you can't legally use them interchangably.

Socially, do whatever you want. Before I decided that I was going to change my name professionally, I left my email and everything else at work with my old last name, but had HR change my name legally on all of my benefits, paycheck, etc. My legal name was changed, but socially and professionally, I was still using my old last name.

daria24 · May 2013

Socially, you can do whatever you want. Professionally/legally, there might be certain laws you need to follow. My friend is a psychologist and wanted to practice as Dr. Maiden but also legally take her husband's last name. So she had to drop her middle name and become Jane Maiden Married. The laws vary by state and profession. In my profession you could call yourself anything.

In my experience, most women I know didn't change their name legally, and just go by Mrs. Married socially.

MoonlightSilver · May 2013

If you're going to use both names interchangible, then you'd legally want to be FirstName Middlename MaidenLast MarriedLast (or switch the order). How you go about doing that differs by state. In my state, we just went with the marriage license to the Social Security office, filled out the name change and put both last names down for our new last name. Easy as could be.

Changing your name

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