Quote Originally Posted by Tri Girl View Post
I changed my name. Never thought anything of it. Plus- I was changing my name from a really confusing German/American hybrid name to a generic name (Brown). I never have to spell it, which is so nice. When my dad died, I kind of wished I'd kept it, but my brother has a son, so the name will go on.
Ditto, exactly...except that my father is still alive. I love not having to spell my last name anymore (even though I always still have to spell both my first name and my middle name - if using it).

And if you want to talk about unusual last names, my maiden name belongs to 4 people. My parents, my brother and myself (now, my brother's wife and not me, but still 4 people). No one else in the entire world (living). Talk about lack of privacy - I meet someone and one Google search and they know every thing about my family they could possibly want to know. It sucked. As much as I liked being unique, it was somewhat scary in many ways (particularly when I was dating). Now, my married name sounds like a soap opera name - and in fact, it's the name belonging to a character from an 80's fantasy TV drama. When you google it, you get hits about that show and not about me.

I was married at 35, too. My first career, my college degrees and my master's thesis are all in my maiden name even though we got married before I was done with graduate school. When I started my first job in my second career, it was with my married name. It was an easy transition for me.

If I had to do it all again, I would. Regardless of what my driver's license says...I'm still a 'maiden name' and always will be. By taking my husband's name, now I'm a 'married name' as well. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best of both worlds.