Weddingbee Blog

I am not channeling the artist sorta known as Prince, but this one little punctuation mark—the hyphen—is playing a little bit of a role in my name change situation. There have been a variety of posts on name changing from bees both current and past, so I know that this is not a new topic here on Weddingbee land. There have been many creative takes on the name change debate—from keeping your name; to taking your fiance’s name; to making your maiden name your middle name. I like to do things my own way and often that results in some difficulty. You see, I’ve decided to hyphenate my last name.

Yeah, I know that this shouldn’t be such a big deal, but I have a bit of wrinkle in all of this name change business: My first name is already HYPHENATED!!! That’s right. Here’s what my name is now:

First Name-First Name Middle Name Last Name.

I can’t believe I want to hyphenate my LAST name! I just can’t get enough of super long names!

After researching this a bit, I’ve learned that while I can change my last name quite easily, my first name is another whole topic. I was able to choose a new surname on our marriage license application. I find it interesting that Mr. Swan was not given the option to change his on the form, but I digress…

To change my first name, I would be required to go through a judicial proceeding.

While it seems ministerial at best, I just don’t think I want to invest the time and energy into this kind of endeavor (for lack of a better word), as name changing already seems like a barrel of fun as it is. Apparently, as long as I use my name consistently without intent to fraud, I should be good to go (luckily, three years of law school and a lot debt allows me to know what this means). Thank you, New York State Domestic Relations Law, for giving me a break!

As of right now, LEGALLY my post-marriage name will be:

First Name-First Name Middle Name Last Name-Last Name (Are you still following me?).

BUT, I will probably go through work and my daily life as:

First Name Last Name-Last Name

Don’t ask me how this is all going to work, as I will be making this up as I go along.

I very rarely hear women mention that they will hyphenate their names. It’s probably too much of a hassle, huh? My few married friends have all chosen to keep their last names, with the exception of one. As with everything in life, I want to have my cake and eat it too… my way. As much as it’s going to be a pain, I want to give honor to both families that I will belong to.

The moral of the story: If you’re thinking about hyphenating your child’s first name in the future, DON’T DO IT!!

Do any of you have any special name change challenges?