[Ieshia]

Would you keep your last name or take your husband's after getting married and why?

[chaya]

I love my husband and I was proud to take his last name. Even after 7 months of marriage, I still get a warm fuzzy feeling when someone calls me Mrs. (his last name).

[KMonte85]

I plan to take my fiance's last name when I marry. We're both pretty traditional that way.

I think it is a sign of respect for my husband, shows devotion, and also shows my willingness to become an "official" member of his family...

although some days I still am a bit sad about giving up my maiden name - I really like it, and its a huge part of my heritage. But then I remember that I will still be who I am, and I will still have come from the same lineage no matter what my name is.

[Little]

I took my husband's name for simplicity.
A, my maiden name is difficult to spell and pronounce.
B, we have a son and I didn't want any confusion at the hospital about what his name would be (I was told there would be some trouble getting him the right last name, regardless of marital status, if mommy and daddy's name didn't match ... I hope this problem is unique to the hospital where I delivered!)
Also, it will make it that much simpler when my son goes to school. No awkwardness about names, etc.
I did take my maiden name as a middle name, though. I was never in love with my middle name, though I would have kept it in the event the social security forms had 4 blanks.

[LanaBear]

I took my husband's name too.

It was just simpler that way and I was never a fan of my maiden name. Part of it had a form of a name for a part of the male anatomy and it was the highlight of teenage boys when I was growing up, lol. So, it did not make me sad at all to part with it.

Plus, like Little said, just eases the confusion when you start having kids, then they go to school, blah blah blah.

Little... Both my boys have two middle names and they are both on their social security cards. However, I'm not sure how I filled them out though, if they had 3 or 4 spaces.

[rcoreyus]

It works either way. If you get married later in life, and especially if you have a professional career, it may be easier to keep your own name.

[WildChild]

I did not take my children's father's last name but did change in my last marriage - would never change it again and recommend against it. The hospitals had no problem with names for my children.

"I think it is a sign of respect for my husband, shows devotion, and also shows my willingness to become an "official" member of his family..."
What shows his respect for you, his devotion and his willingness to become an "official" member of your family?

[CHANDLERS WISH]

For me, my ex-husband's name was Dohnt... I couldn't imagine firstly the ridicule at school as they called the child DONT if, that was to occur, secondly my name was quite known in my profession and I didn't want to change that, for obvious reasons of not being known....

He also didn't like his last name as he didn't like his Father, his brother had already changed his, much earlier in life, so we hyphenated it to my name - his Mother's last maden name and now, as I am separated to Divorce I can drop his last name as it's legal here and go back to my original... I am engaged, so I will take my fiances last name this time as I feel it is "the" marriage I should have had, but I will still go by my old name for business, or again hyphenate it for business, I'll ask him lol's....

[KMonte85]

"I think it is a sign of respect for my husband, shows devotion, and also shows my willingness to become an "official" member of his family..."
What shows his respect for you, his devotion and his willingness to become an "official" member of your family?

In all honesty, he has already been an official member of my family for the years he has spent with us. For the times he has taken to help me take care of my parents, to help my brother with his faltering business, to take off work so he could attend my family's important events (weddings, deaths, births). All without being obligated to. All without being asked to. He has shown respect in so many ways over the near decade we have been together, and my taking his name is one way for me to show him how proud I am to have him as my husband.

[avvie_88]

After asking my fiancee to take MY last name and getting a look from him like I had 7 heads...
I'll be talking his last name. -_- hahaha
I'm about as far from traditional when it comes to "a woman's place" type stuff, but I don't know...this is one thing women are expected to do that I don't really feel the desire to rebel against.
I read another answer saying that no one can pronounce her maiden name and I couldn't help but laugh. My last name now is 3 letters. THREE, and you couldn't IMAGINE how butchered it gets... Although, my fiancee's last name gets messed up too. Which is sad, because it's said exactly how it's spelled, it's English (I'm pretty sure. Mine's German) but people don't pay attention and add a letter which totally changes it.
He's enlisted, so I'm sure it'll make things with paperwork for the military more simple too...as well as generally just combining everything. It's a lot easier to explain that he's my husband when we have the same last name than it would be if we didn't.
My fiancee's father was adopted by a man he really doesn't even have a relationship with anymore (his mom and the man divorced). So my fiancee and I will be the first "real" family sharing that last name. Which is pretty cool.
AND it gives me an excuse to get another tattoo. I'll be getting my maiden name tattoo'd with my dad as a "bonding" thing. So that's a perk haha