Any one else NOT changing their last name?

I'm not sure what I am doing yet. I like my FULL name (including middle name), I've grown up being called Kelly Lynn because of the multitude of Kellys in my neighborhood. When people ask my name they now that I am Irish (Kelly McC...) and I am really proud of that. FI is irish as well (red hair, freckles, and all) but has a german last name. I don't know if I am willing to give up on all of my irishness. LOL I was thinking about taking my last name as a second middle, but I'm not sure how confusing that may be when asked or to fill out forms.

Danielle - I'm glad you liked what I had to say. Thanks! And I also agree with the other comments that there is no reason feel defensive about any decision either way, but I do understand how other situations (outside of BWD) can make you feel that way and it's hard to put those aside.

I was going back over the posts and thinking as I was reading all the different points of view that just being able to have this conversation is a sort of feminist statement because we are all talking about making a choice one way or the other with respect to our names. And I know I may have read this the wrong way and misinterpreted - but there was an earlier post about a husband who changed his last name to his wife's and the assumption was the guy had to have a bad last name to begin with to have done so. Respectfully, I disagree that was necessarily the case, and even if it were, it is still commendable that the guy was brave enough to be that progressive knowing that he will in all likelihood be teased by friends and strangers. It does take people like to push the boundaries of tradition and allow all of us to have this open conversations and ultimately make our own choices to change/hyphenate/keep names – whatever our reasons might be (and they’re all good reasons either way). Again, I may have misread the so my apologies if I misunderstood. I just wanted to share my take on what I know can be a sensitive subject.

I hyphonated my last name and have a few reasons why. My father doesn't have any sons and I didn't want our last name to "die out" In my Womans Studies class at Cal State Long Beach I learned that the letters "Mrs." meant belonging to, when woman used to be property of their husbands. It was at that moment I knew I would hyphonate. I'm not a feminist or anything like that, I just wanted to keep that part of my identity. I was very fortunate that my husband (my FI at the time) was very supportive of my decision.

i'm with morgan on all of this.

i'm the only one in my immediate family with my last name anyway and it's been that way since i was little. so if i'm going to continue to have a different last name than my parents', it may as well be because i'm taking my hubby's.