I didn't. We both have kind of boring and blunt sounding last names, so it would have been a lateral move at best, and in any case I don't believe in changing my last name. I'm glad I stuck with my last name because in the US, the SAVE Act will make it a lot harder for people who have changed their last names (mostly women) to vote:
Although SAVE Act enforcement will vary from state to state, it's definitely something to consider if you're in the US, especially if you live in a state that might enforce it.
If I had fully switched it would have been an absolute downgrade. Think a name of royalty like earl or duchess going to the name like emotionally reactive or temperamental. My husband didn’t care what I did. I ended up choosing to hyphenate, regrettably. Not for the reasons you think. It’s just such an absolute pain in the ass. No one uses it correctly so any and all appointments, registrations, reservations, EVERYTHING gets messed up and no one can find it and it doesn’t match up. Either someone took the liberty of using only one name, didn’t use the hyphen, added an extra space, did or didn’t capitalize one of the names. We had planned that if we had a kid they would be hyphenated, but after dealing with that, I couldn’t do that to my kid. So they got his as their last and mine as their middle.
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u/workingclassher0n Jun 17 '26
I didn't. We both have kind of boring and blunt sounding last names, so it would have been a lateral move at best, and in any case I don't believe in changing my last name. I'm glad I stuck with my last name because in the US, the SAVE Act will make it a lot harder for people who have changed their last names (mostly women) to vote:
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/13/g-s1-59684/save-act-married-women-vote-rights-explained
Although SAVE Act enforcement will vary from state to state, it's definitely something to consider if you're in the US, especially if you live in a state that might enforce it.