Weddingbee Blog

When it came to deciding if I should change my name, I pretty much didn’t think about it. I always planned on changing my name. I’m not sure why—mostly I think it’s because I can be pretty old-fashioned sometimes. There is a side of me that would love to be a little Suzy Homemaker stay-at-home mom raising the kids and taking care of the home.

I know a lot of people get emotional about losing their last name, but I’ve never had some crazy attachment to it. Yes, it’s my “family’s name,” but I don’t see changing your name as changing who your family is. Plus, most of my immediate family has a different last name so it never struck me as something HUGELY important. My first name is pretty original, so I’ve always identified more with that. Like Madonna or something (without the fame, fortune, and talent).

Also, my last name is really weird.

I can assure you, you would pronounce it wrong upon first glance. There are far too many vowels in a row in it. It has forever driven me insane that people say it wrong, ALL THE TIME. I’ve even heard variations of it that sound a lot like an excrement from your body. I could correct teachers and professors 90 times and they STILL couldn’t pronounce it. It’s been fun times.

My married last name is pretty common. It’s not quite as common as let’s say “Smith,” but it’s a complete polar opposite from what I’m coming from. And even though I have a unique first name, my first name + married name is a much more common combination. When I google myself now (what, doesn’t everyone do that?) I only get 229 results. Most of those results are actually pulling things about me, or pulling one of the members of my family since my last name is so unique. When I google my married name I jump up to 5,670 results. I will be a lot less Googleable (which I like, I guess).

One day I was discussing this name changing issue with a friend. I realized that I will be the most upset over parting with my e-mail address. Is that odd? You see my e-mail address is simply MYFULLNAME@EMAIL.COM. Since my name is so unique it was easy to secure the e-mail address without any added numbers, periods, or middle initial. I quickly checked my current e-mail provider to see if my married name would be available as an e-mail and it wasn’t (unless I add some numbers, periods, etc). Cue irrational annoyance. After checking a few more e-mail providers it turns out that only gmail had my married name available. So, what’s does a psycho like me do? Sign up for it just to hold it—obviously! Well, turns out I forgot I was signed into my i-google page at my current non-gmail account so as soon as Google saw I was making the switch they took over. Now, whenever I log-in to my i-Google page it automatically refreshes me under MYMARRIEDNAME@GMAIL.COM. This was over a year and a half ago. (Ha, oops). Not to mention gmail recommended me as a contact to one of my friends. Good thing she understands my oddball tendencies.

Thanks to putting my future e-mail address “on hold” over a year ago, I’ve had plenty of time to get used to seeing my new name. However, I’m pretty sure it will be Weird City when I make the official switch. I think the weirdest part though will be when people say Mrs. MARRIEDNAME to me. I get the weirds enough when people call me ma’am (MA’AM REALLY? I’M NOT EVEN 30 YET!). In my head that is still my future MIL’s name and not my own. It will be an adjustment.

Was the decision to change your name an easy choice for you? Anyone else do something crazy like reserve an e-mail address before even changing their name?