What's in a name?

Could I have picked a more cliche title for this blog entry?

So, Roy got his last name officially changed today. After jumping through many hoops, he has his mother's maiden name and what is now our new last name.

I've got to say that I feel that I have the best husband in the world for many reasons. The fact that he was willing to change his last name is one of those. I am a staunch believer in equality, and I have my issues that I get righteously indignant about. While I think it's fine if other women want to change their names to their husband's last name, it just wasn't the right choice for me. For awhile, I thought I would change my last name to his and then I realized I couldn't do it (for personal reasons).

So I told Roy that we either both had to change (or hyphenate) or that we were both going to keep our names. He actually agreed to change his last name, but it took us awhile to pick our new name. We were going to combine one name from each side, but I realized that Roy wasn't really into that. So I caved a bit and decided that we could go with his mother's maiden name, a decision that I have never regretted.

Anyway, for a man to change his name, even for purposes of marriage, he has to pay $330+ to file for the name change, fill out an assload of paperwork, and publish a public notice of his intent to change his name in a local publication for 4 consecutive weeks. The latter costs $80. Finally, he can go to court and have his request granted by the presiding judge, assuming there are no objections, restraining orders, etc.

This whole process just screams "LAWSUIT!" Maybe I'll let the ACLU know about this one of these days.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the fact that I have the greatest husband in the world.