By any other name would smell as sweet

I am getting married in three weeks and I am going to change my last name to his.  I say this a little easier now that I have officially made the decision, but as little as one month ago I was still trying to figure out a way to keep my maiden name.  A recently married co-worker of mine took his last name but legally changed her middle name to her maiden name.  Another co-worker hyphenated her name and yet another simply didn’t change her name at all.  Of course a good majority of women take their new husbands surname, but there are enough women out their challenging this tradition to make me wonder: what’s in a name?  Why do we attach ourselves to a meaningless mix of letters?  What do I fear will happen when I change my name?  My name does not define me; it does not determine my personality or hold my memories.  My accomplishments and feelings travel with me, not my last name.  And so I will take his last name, because it is a societal tradition~and because I wouldn’t want to be the one that puts my new husband in a place where he has to answer “is that your wife?” or my future children have to answer “is that your mom?” when we fill out paperwork.  Perhaps it doesn’t matter at all to most people, but to me, I struggled to change the name I’ve lived with for 22 years.  I love it’s cultural authenticity, I love the way it connects with my first name, I love that it connects me to my dad, I love that my initials are displayed everywhere because they are an abbreviation of a common household item.  I’ve only discovered one benefit to my new last name, and that is that it is the same last name as my husbands.  I am looking forward to discovering more benefits.