i always thought that i would marry the first boy i met with a nice last name...lol. by the time i got to college, i decided that if a guy really wanted us to have the same last name then he could take mine! this is who i have been for 27 years. i don't want a new name. and lord knows if you get divorced, then you are stuck with your ex's name. i think not (not that i am planning on getting a divorce)! i have friends whose parents have gotten divorced after 20-something years of marriage and their moms have changed their names back to their maiden names. as all of my friends like to point out, they had their marriage name longer than they had their maiden names.

this was a sore spot with my ex and i as he comes from a really traditional family....to the point that not only was i supposed to take his last name, but i was also supposed to change my middle name to his first name. that to me felt like ownership. i understand the reasoning behind it HUNDREDS of years ago, but it was not useful now! i would want all of my children to take his name and i would definately not be one of those people who freaked out if someone called me mrs. so&so.

I would probably hyphenate my name as well. Just a word of caution though, don't make it too long! I had a teacher who married late in life so she decided to hyphenate her name. Her new name was (first name) Slatkovitch-Cunniff. Her name took up two lines on her drivers license!