What if you want to use both your maiden and your husband's surnames?

Briefly, a deed poll is only for name changes, a statutory declaration is for everything and anything, it's similar to an affadavit.  You can use a stat. dec. to change your name but most people would do it by deed poll.  You might need to do a stat dec to change your name if there are any odd circumstances, like you have been going by your name for a long time but you are only now formalising it - you need to declare the history.

So wait, let me get this straight....

I want to drop my middle name and make my maiden name my middle name, therefore making my last name my partner's once we're married....... How do I go about doing that? I'm confused on how to go about this. Is this where the stat docs comes into place or do I let the registrar officer know at the ceremony of my wedding?

... if you are British, then you will have to change your name by Deed Poll.

BTW to any gals out there who are curious, I decided to take my husband's last name to make life easier.  BUT, my bank said I could keep all my personal accounts in my maiden name, and have joint accounts in my married name.  Technically, I'm both, which makes me happy!

Ah! I knew there'd be a thread on this. And I think it answered my question: if I take his last name, I can legally do what I like for a middle name. Correct?

In the US, a married woman traditionally takes her maiden name as her middle name. In the UK, my understanding is that she traditionally keeps her old middle name and drops her maiden name. Is that right? Just as a matter of curiosity.

I'm from the deep South in the US, so I have one of those preposterous four-word, ten-syllable maiden names that includes my home state. If I go Firstname Middlename Middlename Marriedname, I'm going to sound like an American cartoon character. However, if I go Firstname Maidenname Marriedname, I'm going to sound like Lady Snotty of Stuckup Manor, Buggeroff-on-Sea. Oddly, I think I prefer the latter.

One more question: does this forum prefer that old threads are resurrected as opposed to starting new threads on the same topic? One of the bulletin boards I frequent is super fussy about this. If you ask a question, an old hand will sigh and point you to a three-year-old thread rather than answer the freaking question. This place seems a bit mellower than that.