I will not use my real surname, so for the sake of this post my Mum's maiden name will be "Smith", my Dad's surname will be "Jones". My first name for the sake of this post will be "Emma".
My parents are happily married and I am nineteen years old. Divorce or family disputes is not at all on the cards. I'm a proud "Jones", but at the same time, my Mum's side of the family is a massive make-up of who I am. I'd really love to socially (not legally) refer to myself as "Emma Smith-Jones", rather than just "Emma Jones".
I just want my name to reflect both of my beautiful families and heritage. Once I am married to my partner, I'll happily take his name... but for now, I'd just love to hyphenate my parents names together.
Is this strange and just weird?
4 Replies
its confusing. if its not legal then where can you use it?
but hey, its your life and your name so do whatever makes you happy!
Go for it, but need to check the legalities of using it without changing it.
I don't use my husband's surname (but then he doesn't like it anyway), and our three sons are all hyphenated but they all use my surname. They know that they can use any combination that they like but use mine because they also don't like my husband's surname. It is a bit of a shocker lol.
I think it is lovely to show respect to your mother's family and the influence they have had in your life. But I agree you should check out the legalities just to cover your own backside. People can use whatever name they want without changing it legally but it can cause issues with different sectors such as superannuation, employment etc.
Socially is fine, do what you like.
Here is just my snippet of having a hyphenated name until I was married.
With forms and over the phone especially hazy English speaking people I spent more of my time explaining my last name was not my middle name as it was Gordon-Smith.
Or legal things may have been filed under 'G' or 'S' depending on how they interpreted my last name.
I always just spelt it out, no point going around in circles about the 2 names, Or people didn't know what a hyphen was.
I was only married 2 years ago, and it has been a joy not to do the whole last name explanation.
But good on you for wanting to honour your family.
Just thought I'd offer this insight of 34 years of it.
The G-S family are awesome and I loved being part. Just the documents thing I found tedious.