Even though it is against my religion *gulp*, I didn't take it. The argument is, when you are married you become ONE. And that "one" is represented by your name. Why the husband's name? Well, it comes from the "head of the household" mantra. But, even if you dont believe in that, why NOT the husband's name? Is that somehow taking something away from me as a woman? I don't think so. But here is the 'ridiculous to some' reason why I kept my name. I have only been married for three years. And, with the divorce rate being as high as it is, we can have one name after we've been through a certain number of years of marriage. That's how I feel and 3 years doesn't quite cut it for me. He has asked me to change it and I have never told him this reason but I always put it on hold somehow. It's not easy to change your name back after a divorce and though this might be a slightly pessimistic view, I see it as very realistic. And hopefully we will be one of those couples that will forever be married. And, when I do change it, I will still keep my name in the middle because that is who I was born as.

I hyphenated - and I'm really happy with my decision. I felt hyphenation signified the fact that we were joining families (rather than my family being crushed by his lol). So because of what I felt it symbolized, I went ahead and hyphenated.

It is definetly a personal decision. I believe it is between the future husband and wife to discuss the matter. And nobody on the outside including parents and well-meaning friends should meddle in their affairs. I never want to get married. I am single. But I live a simple life. I never give marital advice to friends, for I believe they become one, even if their names are the same or not. They can still have their personal likes and dislikes. But I think marriage is a strong union. They grown to love eachother whether they accept whomever last name they decide.

I kept my own last name. My sister hyphenated. My sister-in-law changed her name. For me it was mostly laziness - though my whole family thinks I am super feminist!! The only one who "forgets" is my mother-in-law, but I think that is related to the fact that she is in her 80's and it just seems too odd to her. Our daughter's have the father's last name. He is the only one of his siblings who has children and we wanted the name to continue. Also, my last name is very generic -I'm the Jones - and his is more interesting - he's the Kalvig!

I took his name because I believe in a nuclear family - mom, dad, 2.2 kids, 1.4 pets, etc. However, if his last name had been "Butz", or something, no way! LOL! I'm one of those people that think that everyone is capable of making decisions for themselves, and anyone NOT personally related to or affected by that decision needs a big cup of STFU with a side of Butt Out.

I want to be part of that minority...I've been married one year, yesterday...and have yet to change my name (or our two sons' name)...Here's the deal...We had two sons before we were married...because we were not married, I gave them my last name...so we were married a year ago...and he expects that I should change all 3 of our last names...when it would be easier and less expensive for him to change his...He believes that it should be so easy for me and that I should want to change my name...but when I tell him it would be easier for him to change his, the conversation shifts...LoL...so here we are a year later and our loving, together family has two last names...by the way...I am pregnant with our third child...Oh what's in a name...LoL

Thank you for doing this episode. I'm getting married next year and am not changing my last name. Things have been further complicated because my fiance and I have agreed that we will hyphenate our kids' last names. (We're lucky that both of our last names are short, one-syllable words that aren't too unwieldy when linked.) Our families are supportive of my personal choice, but not as happy about the hyphenation issue. Does anyone have experience with this? If you didn't change your last name, how did you handle your kids' names? As far as the family is concerned, it's my stance that we'll do what feels right to us and they'll get over it eventually. I am really curious about what other people do, though, since I don't personally know anyone who shares our situation.

My husband has a horrible last name. No one can spell it. No one can pronounce it just by reading it. When you do pronounce it correctly, it sounds vaguely dirty. I always loved my last name-simple and pleasant sounding-but when my husband and I got married I changed my name without a second of hesitation. I wanted his last name, dirty impossible thing that it is, because I wanted him to know that I will not hold any part of myself back in our marriage. I am not the same person I was before we met, and I want the world to know that we are together-a family. We've been together almost 8 years and have 3 children and I write "Mrs" in front of my name on everything. On formal documents I have been known to write "Mr. and Mrs. HisFirst HisLastName" and I not only don't feel that I've lost my identity, I think it's lovely. A tribute to my husband and my marriage. That's what works for me, and in my personal life I feel very strongly that I did the right thing. However, despite my strong feelings about my own decision, it still doesn't matter a bit to me whether or not other women take their husband's names or hyphenate keep their own names or make up a new one-that's between them and their husband and I would never criticize people for their choice. That just seems silly.

I think it's very important for the woman to take her husband's name, but then my situation kind of made that awkward. His father ended up marrying my mother before we did! So, we picked a brand new name, to keep it from being weird. I don't want people thinking we're brother and sister, since everyone would have the same name, had we changed to his.