Search in your own words. Describe what you need or ask a wedding planning question.
I need help deciding what to change my name to! I cannot decide if I should use my maiden name as my middle name or drop my maiden name and keep my middle name... any suggestions? is it possible to keep both?
I mostly use my husband's last name, but I sometimes use a hyphened last name, depending on my mood. : )
I was told when I got my marriage license that if I put my husband's last name on it, then I can use his name, my maiden name, or a hyphenation of the two, without having to choose one to use all the time. If I put my last name, I am locked into using only that. I liked the idea of the freedom of choice, so I chose that option.
That's not true. They told me the same thing about putting his last name but months after the wedding when I was renewing my passport, I called to make sure and even if you didn't use your husbands name on the marriage certificate, you can use his name or hypenate, etc.
I ended up using both last names w/o a hyphen. And I kept my middle name becasue that isn't so easy to drop. So I have four names on my social security and passport. Remember that whatever is on your social security is what you need to use when filing taxes. Our accountant only put my husbands last name (and I didn't notice) so we had problems getting our refund.
I'm hearing so many different things about the whole name change thing that I don't even know what's correct anymore. My question is this - If I put my husband's last name (only his) on my marriage license as surname does that mean that I chose to take his and am not longer entitled to use my maiden name alone or both name together???
2 people have told me that once I made that choice on my marriage license than that was it and now I can only legally use his?? Please tell me WHAT's CORRECT???
Thank you so much for your help!!
Call the place where you got your license and they'll tell you. I didn't put my husbands name on the license, but called and was told I could legally use his name, my name, or use both. Call and find out. They'll tell you your options.
