Ch-ch-ch-changes
In a little under three months, I will have an entirely new name. (Okay, not entirely new. I am staying Erin.) It has brought about all sorts of strange revelations. For example, did you know that if you change your last name, your initials change? This sounds perfectly reasonable, but it’s not something I had thought of. It threw me for a loop.
Now I’m faced with questions about my identity. I have always felt strongly that my middle initial (another lovely M) is an important part of my name. It’s nice to have your initials be EMM. But what about when my last name starts with an L? Will I be EL or EML? EL just looks weird, but I blame the L for that.
Why does this come up now? Because of the brave-new-world economy, my office is grouping as many orders as possible. Business cards were ordered in bulk a few weeks ago, and won’t be ordered again until well after the wedding. My new cards and nametag arrived last week (I have them hidden so they doesn’t creep me out). It looks like a whole bunch of letters fell out of my last name. I’m trading in a majestic 10-letter last name for 6. And they’re not even particularly wide letters, so they take up very little space.
Have you recently had any dim-witted revelations (like new last names mean new initials)? If you changed your name, what took the longest to get used to?
Sarah said,
May 7, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I got used to my new name fairly quickly (there was some sadness and nostalgia there, but not bad).
What I haven’t gotten used to is being referred to as “The Costers.” I feel like I’ve lost my own identity when I hear people refer to us that way. I much prefered Seph and Sarah.
Brenda said,
May 8, 2009 at 6:19 am
I got used to it really quickly. Shockingly quickly. And I traded the same 10 letter name for a similarly simple 6 letter one! I chose to keep my middle name as my middle name. I love our family name, but damn, it’s a mouth-full. I do feel bad about it, but I am BL(N). Kathleen had it easy!
summerdcbride said,
May 8, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I’m kind of excited to change my last name – most people have problems pronouncing it and since I’m a Z last name, I’m always last!
This being said, I have decided to drop my middle name. It begins with D. I hate my middle name, but I like the initials MDZ. After next august I will be MZF….weird! I didn’t think about initials until reading your post.
Something Old « MildlyCrazy’s Blog said,
July 15, 2009 at 5:52 pm
[...] a bride stay grounded with her family while joining a new family, and loosing her name. I’m gladly changing my name, and I have no fears of loosing my side of the family (couldn’t if I tried), but I do think [...]