# My Fiancee is keeping her Surname... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 27, 2012, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fiancee-is-keeping-her-surname/620111 "2012-04-27T07:58:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fiancee-is-keeping-her-surname/620111/61 "2012-05-01T21:41:01Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > **Mama Zappa** kept her maiden name for a while after we married. One great side affect - when someone called and ask if I were Mr. Zappa, I knew they were a telemarketer. Our friends and family all knew I was Mr. Knig, married to Ms. Zappa. > > That was before caller ID was widely available, but anything that lets me cut off telemarketers is a good thing. > > A friend of mine has her Batchelor’s degree in her maiden name, her Master’s in her married name, and her Doctorate in her second married name. Another source of confusion in life. I can relate. My military service and discharge is in one name, some of my transcripts are under Mrs. Robin Firstmarriage, and everything else is under Mrs. Robin Doors. Trying to get everything to match up is a treat, let me tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fiancee-is-keeping-her-surname/620111/62 "2012-05-01T22:10:58Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Lets say one parent is a US citizen and the child is born outside the US, so the US citizen parent is of course going to go to the embassy and file for a CRBA so their child also had US citizenship. The immigration officer pretty much has free reign to consider anything and everything in establishing whether to grant it, and I can guarantee a child that has a different surname from either parent is going to be brow raising:dubious: Especially if the parents aren’t married, they are going to think it is a scam and the child’s actual father is not a citizen. > > But hey maybe they just require a DNA test at your cost and then you get it granted, so that isn’t much of a big deal right? > > I think that is the point people were making, that it could end up being a nuisance down the line. Nope. They can’t. More than ten years ago laws were changed. If a parent is a parent via birth certificate (or whatever passes in the country of birth) or adoption paperwork, that child automatically gets U.S. citizenship. The immigration officer has no decisions to make. (And parents who adopted internationally had a lot fewer hoops to jump through). ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fiancee-is-keeping-her-surname/620111/63 "2012-05-01T23:09:34Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > We had an issue ONCE, and it was very brief. And I don’t think it had anything to do with last names, I think it was the racial mismatch. It was a TSA agent (yeah, I know) and my son was old enough to say “duh, I’m adopted, yes, that is my mother.” Same thing for me. I had occasional issues with my own biracial kids with a different last name, but people always assumed I was my Caucasian nephew’s mother despite different last names. There was some calling me " Mrs Kidslastname", but that really didn’t bother me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-fiancee-is-keeping-her-surname/620111.md?page=3)