Thursday, May 29, 2008

to change OR not to change?

My name.

My name.

My name.

My name.

I thought I knew what to do, then I changed my mind, then I changed it back, and now I came to this conclusion.

I will remain who I am no matter what name.

8 comments:

Matt said...

Drop everything except: Anne

Better yet, hyphenate it: An-ne

Then pronounce it "Ah-nay" and release a CD of tribal finger-tapping that you could sell at Target in those kiosks near the gift wrap.

I would also consider releasing a companion DVD (for a nominal fee, of course) that would feature the songs from the CD, set to videos of dogs running through fields... wait for it... in slow motion. AND you could put the American Flag at about 30% opacity, gently flowing throughout the entire video in the background.

I'll brainstorm names for our fake record label, you just need to learn tribal finger-tapping. If it doesn't exist, make it up.

Welcome to your new life as An-ne.

Anonymous said...

ok just laughed at the comment before this...or after this, whichever way it posts...

I say take his name or hyphenate. :) I am the last one to carry on the Peterson name in our family (on our side anyway) so I am going to hyphenate. Let's hope I marry someone with a fairly short last name...Peterson doesn't really hyphenate too well I don't think :)

See you in a few weeks!!!

Later cuz!

Teresa said...

I know a married couple who have kept both of their names with no hyphen and have combined a few letters of each of their last names into the last names of their children. Seems confusing to me, but they like it. Kids aren't old enough to ask yet.

Whatever you decide will be fine. Although if you don't change your name, you don't have to go through all the name-changing paperwork. Frankly, you're going to be called by his last name by some people because they won't remember or know or care if you decide not to.

Of course, he could take your last name.

EP said...

For the longest time, I thought I would take my husband's name, no questions asked.

Since I'm in journalism, I don't want to change up too much of my name, so I think what I will do is take his last name, but go by my first name, maiden name and his last name in cutlines and life.

So, how does that help you? Probably not at all. :/ I'm sure you will figure it out, and staying yourself is definitely a good thing.

Marissa said...

this is so hard. i am not even engaged, and i think about it all the time. a HUGE part of me wants to keep my name, but then there is a traditional side of me that wants to change it. and i also want to have the same last name as my children. what to do, what to do?!

keo boun pheng said...

i took my maiden name as my middle name and then took his name. {it was important to me to have the same name as my children}

now, compare your potential new name to keobounpheng. HA! :)

i will tell you honestly, i wasn't like, oozing with love and excitement when i changed my name. at first it was "difficult" to make the social adjustments (and the spelling and pronouncing for people...) and even relating/recognizing myself with this new hame. i might have second-guessed once ... or twice.

BUT, this year will be our 9th year of marriage and somewhere around the 3rd year, i stopped recognizing myself by my maiden name (even hesitated when having to type it, which really is a big sign!) -- and began identitifying myself as tia keobounpheng. i am the same person and yet, i am also new, grown....and part of my own little family - on our own branch.

in 20 years, we'll all wonder why we stressed about it - regardless if we changed or not.

{did i mention i can type keobounpheng with 100% accuracy and speed?}{and that my dad still can't pronounce it correctly?} ;)

Anne said...

thank you ALL for your comments/advice/thoughts! i really appreciate all of it.

it means a lot to me to know that i am not the only one to have thought long and hard about this "decision" --- thank you!

Abigail said...

Try it out: take his last name, and say it with your first name five times fast. It's a really cool last name, but when put with your first name, it kinda sounds like "enigma." You have a cool last name, too. Jake should take yours.