When Chris and I got married, I didn't change my name. Even in 2010, and now five years later, this seems to confuse people. I'm not militant or angry when people call me by his last name, in many ways it's easier and more convenient...you know, addressing things to both first and last names, filling out forms etc.
It's been more complicated since we headed out on the road because we've been applying for jobs together. With Amazon I felt like I had to keep reminding them that we were married so they wouldn't put us on different shifts. In Amazon's defense, they never gave any indication that they didn't understand the situation, but I was paranoid.
At our current jobs, the customer we're working for asked if we were actually married and though he didn't seem judgmental about it, he seemed confused. I tried hard not to have a "What the hell is wrong with you" look on my face. Seriously, is it that uncommon?
We spend a lot of time in the car together in our current jobs which resulted in a recent conversation about combining our names in some way.
Here are some of our ideas for combining Fitzgerald and Pinkston
Pinkgerald
Fitzton
Finkston
Or maybe an amalgamation of some or all of the letters.
O'Zinger
O'Pinger
Or how about
Chris and Sue Danger?
Or maybe we should just use that as our middle name.
Suggestions?
Definitely Danger!!! I never changed my name either. I tack my husband's last name onto my last name for school-related things, just so people know my kids belong to me. :P --RR
ReplyDeleteMy maiden name is hard for people to pronounce when they see it written, and hard for them to spell when they hear it. Still, I was attached to it. I wanted to keep my own name when we married, but my husband pretty much had a hissy fit (Take me, take my name). So I compromised and hyphenated my name with his.
ReplyDeleteTaking an awkward name and making it longer, yeah, that's an idea!
He didn't understand the function of the hyphen. He assumed my maiden name would be like my middle name; instead, it's the start of my last name.
Most of the time, because it is so long and awkward, I use his name and go by Robin H. For legal things, I use the hyphenated name, Robin V-H. Sometimes I forget which name I used. It always pisses him off when people can't find my name on list and they have to search for both Robin H and Robin V-H. And now I have pen name, so I"m working with 3 last names.
Robin V-H