Okay, now that the men who are viewing this have realized its not some kinky sex thread, I am curious-
do you like your married name better than your maiden name?
I had a horrid maiden name, ALL teachers got it wrong!
Now my married name (Hunter) is so easy and impossible to misspell.
I would have chosen it myself when younger.
I had a very difficult maiden name…and now my married name is very, very common.
I would say because of that (commonality), I’d prefer my maiden name (because I’m proud of my heritage as well).
It is nice not having to pronounce my married name, though.
My maiden name was a very common Jones/Smith type name. My married name is a common word spelled very unusually, like “Strahberrie” instead of “Strawberry” so I am constantly spelling it for people, and it’s very annoying. In hindsight (I am now getting a divorce) I probably should have stuck with Jones/Smith, but now my last name is the same as my child’s, so I will keep it until/unless I remarry, and then I’ll decide.
Well I haven’t officially changed my name yet. At the risk of pissing someone off my maiden name is a beautiful Irish name. My husband’s name is German and difficult to pronounce/spell.
I am having a bit of a hard time with this…
Yes, I like the sound of my married name much better. But I often use my maiden name with my last name. It’s a tribute to my father who had no sons.
I had a beautiful Dutch name, which was VERY difficult to spell. Now I have a beautiful Metis name, which is also VERY difficult to spell.
Sigh
At least I moved up a little in the alphabet, from “V” to “R”.
I didn’t change mine. Our kids took epeepunk’s last name, though.
When I practiced putting his last name on my first, we both busted out laughing. Alliteration and cadence made it into an ‘airhead dippy girl’ name. Utterly not me.
I figured I was safe keeping my own at that point. 
I like my name (which is my step-dad’s name, BTW - not even my birth name!).
My friends have chosen entirely based on 1) professional use (if they had a name in their profession, they kept it), and 2) ease of pronuciation and spelling, honestly. About half kept their maiden names, the rest changed because the other option was easier to spell or say. On even calls, family implications (carrying on the name, etc.) carried the vote.
I’m not married, nor engaged, yet I have discussed with my guy what I would do if we were to marry.
Both of our names are of the generic “W.A.S.P.-ey” brand. Neither difficult to pronounce or spell, his starting with A, mine with B.
I want to keep my last name as another middle name, and just tag his on to the end. No hyphen, but still there.
I am extremely proud of my heritage and ancestry. I want to keep that.
My maiden name was also a Jones/Smith kind of name and my new name is Greek. It is not too difficult to pronounce but I hate having to spell it all the time.
Like Poysyn I’ve gone from one difficult name to another. My maiden name was russian, and my married name is french. While they are both uncommon, I find my married name is spelled correctly more of the time than my maiden name was. Also, I’ve moved up a letter in the alphabet, so I can now wait in the first line instead of the second. 
Also, I replaced my middle name with my Jones/Smith maiden name, and gave my maiden name to my child as his middle name, so we now both have the same middle and last name, and I think it’s kind of neat.
I did not change my name - I kept my maiden name. I don’t have a cite, but I remember reading that back in knight times, the name with the most regional influence was the name taken for both the bride & the groom, regardless of gender. With that in mind, my last name is very prominent in our area, but I didn’t ask Mr. X to change his. 
My maiden name is a long French name (always mispronounced). My married name is a shorter German name. I love them both and use them both (my maiden name as my middle name).
My maiden name is a tricky to spell and pronounce Polish name (without a -ski on it), and I married a West (“Like the direction”). We talked about him taking my name, but after 29 years of being mispronounced and misspelled, it’s nice to have a simple name. My daughter says she’s going to marry an Adams or something closer to the beginning of the alphabet.
I do like my married name better…BUT…I have a long first name (eight letters) and now a long last (nine letters) so there is never enough room on any form lines for the whole thing.
I was initially so happy to change my name for this reason. Easy to spell and nobody says it wrong, but now I feel like I probably have the same generic name as a few hundred other women in my state alone. I’m so scared that when I run my credit report next month there’s going to be a ton of errors because of this.
I keep getting telephone solicitations in spanish, because someone with my name must speak spanish. (Although it was cool when Celia Cruz called my house and reminded me to vote this year, even if it was a recording.) 
Also, people look at me funny in the doctors office when they call “Maria <Hispanic Name>” and the white girl stands up to go in to her appointment.
On day 32 of being married, I can honestly say that I am a much bigger fan of the married name. No more repeating, mispellings, mispronunciation, sounds cuter, etc.
However, although I go by the new name socially,have I done the first thing to change it over legally?
Nope.
Just haven’t “gotten around to it.”
Am I bad?
Use my maiden name.
I did change names with my first marriage, then changed back. It was a pain, so when the second marriage happened, I didn’t change it. I’d also managed to achieve a certain professional reputation with my maiden name.
I use my husband’s last name socially (i.e. I don’t correct people who address our Christmas cards as Mr. and Mrs. Hislastname, and most of my kids teachers don’t really realize I have a different last name). Both are not too difficult to spell, but are both often misspelled and/or pronounced (he uses mine to make reservations, call for pizza, order things - believing mine is the easier name).
I did find it really difficult to get used to a new last name when I changed mine the first time - it wasn’t that I didn’t like it - it just took a long while to feel like me. And then once I’d adjusted, it was devistating when the seperation/divorce occurred. It was almost as if I’d made an effort to redefine myself for the marriage only to have who’d I’d become be a complete lie.
My maiden name was Smith. I’ve already told my husband I’m keeping the name no matter what-- so he might as well stay married to me.
I didn’t do anything to “legally” change my name. I just started using my married name. When I had to replace my SS card after I lost it I sent the required documentation which included my marriage cert and got a new card with my new name.
Changed immediately. My maiden name was easily transformed into insults in gradeschool, and even though it was only six letters, two syllables, it was ALWAYS mispronounced. I liked the rare quality of it…but now
I’m a McCartney! And I AM related to Paul. (Of course, it’s just by marriage, but what the hell)