Yesterday I went to the DMV and changed my name and address on my driver’s license, making it official: I have four initials.
This wasn’t what I ever thought I would pick. I’m still not especially excited about it. I used to think it was stupid when people did this. Why would you ever want four names? I would think.
Well, here’s how I got there.
I never entertained the idea of not taking Brian’s last name. I always thought that hopefully someday we would have kids, and I wanted our whole family to have the same name. I like Brian’s last name, it sounds fine with my first name, we were good to go. It wasn’t a question.
It became clear that, at least in my circles, it was more my middle name that was up for discussion.
My mom wanted me to keep my last name and drop my middle name (hi Mom!) This idea was initially abhorrent to me. If I dropped my middle name, it would be like it never existed. My middle name is a part of who I am. I love my middle name.
However, the fact that my new last name and my middle name start with the same initial started to bug me. Two one syllable names with harsh sounds at the end… I wasn’t into it. Plus, I’m a monogram girl. Practically everything I own has my monogram on it. Wouldn’t it be cooler for my initials to be KFB than KBB, since they were originally KBF?
I probably would have done this, except that Brian lobbied in the other direction. He is fond of calling me by my first and middle name, and to him, it seemed dumb to abandon my perfectly lovely name just so that I could keep my last name. This appealed to my initial feelings on the topic.
The thing is, I’m not one to do things because other people want me to, and the fact that they both seemed to care so much probably hurt their cases more than helped them. However, I think it was Brian who suggested that I just keep everything. Initially I didn’t like that idea either. Three out of my four names have one syllable (and when you shorten my first name, all of them do) and the cadence is kind of choppy to me. But I like all of them individually, and the more I thought about it, the more keeping everything made sense to me.
So while it might not have been my first choice, nothing really was given the options. I was lucky enough names that I liked, and had they been a different combination, maybe something would have emerged as a clear choice. I’ve never signed my middle initial as part of my signature, and I’m planning on using the F as the middle initial when I have things monogrammed. I’m warming to my new name.
What did you do when it came time to change your name? Or what do you think you will do?
P.S. Sorry for writing this whole post in hypotheticals. I prefer not to have my entire name listed on here, so thanks for your patience.
Girl I'm in the same boat! I have four names as well, which seems crazy! I go by my middle name and was fine dropping my first name, but the state won't let me do it without changing it with the court. So, I just tacked on his last name–it is so weird though. Congrats on getting it done, I know it's a huge hassle.
This is going to be tough for me because I already have two middle names and 4 initials. I want to take my future husband's last name, so I think I'm going to do away with my last name altogether (it's REALLY common). I'm sure I'll be my usual indecisive self about it when the time comes. Congrats on your name change! (like 4 months ago haha.)