Should I change my surname?

[Janet Bryant]

In article <3h6u42$ves at quartz.ucs.ualberta.ca>, 
dmerriam at gpu2.srv.ualberta.ca (Deborah Merriam) says:
>
snip
>As I see it, my options are:
>1 - keep my current surname for all purposes
>2 - change my surname to coincide with my beloved's (and keep my maiden
>name as a new middle name, if I choose)
>3 - keep my name for business purposes, and use his for personal purposes
>4 - hyphenate (an excellent idea except that our surnames sound hideous
>together ;-)
snip
>Thanks in advance for your advice. This is a wonderful newsgroup!
>
>Deborah Merriam
>dmerriam at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
==============================
Deborah:

As I get ready to celebrate my 13th wedding anniversary, thanks
for the reminder of a time when I agonized over the same decision
you are about to make....

tee hee...I actually sat down and wrote my name every which way...
typed it
caligraphy-ed it
computer printed it in every font I had then available
practiced my signature in all of the ways you described:  hyphenated; 
joined; keeping middle name; going for the initials...et.al.

Since my maiden name was always being mispronounced and mispelled,
my decision was pretty easy when I married Dave.  I went from
Janet Lynn Pindak to Janet Lynn Bryant, and my signature
now has a nice flourish to it.  I'd keep the name, with or without him....
(shhh; don't TELL him... :-)

I ALMOST married a gentleman named, Egebrecht.  I had all intents and
purposes of staying Pindak because I just couldn't see it!  With no 
ill-intent to all those with hard-to-spell; hard-to-pronounce names....
They're just NOT "me".

So I guess my nickel boils down to this:  decide what combination is "YOU"
and then go for it.  All the so-called hurdles will be manageable once you
are comfortable.  

best wishes for much success and happiness.

(now about those children....;-)

janet
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