I am, sorta. I am getting rid of my middle name. My maiden name will become my middle name and then I will take DH's last name. I looked at hyphenating it, but, it looked REALLY pretentious with our two last names AND it took forever to sign! But, it was important to me to keep my maiden name in some form. And, if I ever finish grad school and become a professor (or whatever else I can come up with), I intend to publish in my maiden name.
I changed my name, and I kind of wish I hadn't sometimes. But I had a really, really awkward maiden name, impossible to spell, and I was tired of answering to "Elynor...uh...
how do you say that?"
And my parents had begged me, from an early age, NEVER to hyphenate it. Plus I thought that, when we had a family, it would be less confusing overall if we all had the same name. Of course, now we're rethinking the children bit...
If I'd had any publications by the time we got married, I definitely would not have changed my name, though. I went to grad school with a woman who did exactly what you propose, Dar, and it seemed to work really well for her. It wouldn't have worked for me, alas, given the names in question.
And the most irritating thing is that people STILL ask how to spell my last name! It's a common word, for goodness' sake, and it's only five letters long!!!
