i loved this post on changing one’s name, from a practical wedding.
i especially liked the dialogue about the beauty that is in a woman’s *choice* to change or not change her name. no longer is it true that women in our country are required/expected/forced to change their last name to their husband’s.
this comment especially struck a chord:
I settled this by deciding I wasn’t going to “change” my name. The word “change” just seemed so weird to me. I wasn’t changing who I was fundamentally so why would I change my name? What I was doing was adding to who I am. I was taking the person I’d developed over the course of my lifetime and who I’d come from through my family and adding wife/lover/my own family to it. So rather than “change” my name, I decided I would add to my name. And as I was adding my husband to who I am, I added his name to mine. I added, not changed.
& so that’s what I will do – add Smith to (not change) my name. the beauty in this is that it will be my own, personally-decided choice, showing respect for both my current family and the new family i will be joining.
xoxo
Anna Corinne Camp Smith, (Esq.) ♥
