Is keeping your maiden name uncommon in the UK

 
If you did this, then you could have three first names

Haha just what I need! 

GGTL, you have my sympathy. My first name isn't so bad that I'd want to drop it, so you definitely win.

My maiden last name is a very Irish last name, but it’s also a very popular first name. To this day I’m teased for having two first names. So, when I announced I was marrying DH people were like “oh! You can take his name and have a REAL last name.” However, DH’s last name is also a very popular first name, so when they realized this they’d go “haha you’d still have two first names.” Grow up. It’s really not that funny. 

Anyway, I didn't change my name because I was really conflicted about the whole thing and I resented going through the hassle of changing my name when I wasn't really sure I wanted to.

I'm from the Northeast US and all the women I know who have been married in the last decade have hyphenated their last name. I don't know anyone who has completely dropped their maiden name and taken their husband's last name. Meanwhile the women I know here have taken their husband's name and dropped their maiden name.

Mine too! I have a VERY irish surname which is also a popular first name, but no one has ever said anything about me having two first names? I have considered giving it as a middle name to any children we had because it's quite a nice middle name.
Also...shhh...I hate my husband's surname...

Also...shhh...I hate my husband's surname...

I'll never tell. 

I suppose it could be worse, we could've ended being Julia Guglia a la The Wedding Singer. Now that would suck.

Really, the only reason I changed mine was that I didn't fancy spending the rest of my life having to spell and re-spell my German maiden name for people.

Plus, I figured it wouldn't stick out as so immediately foreign on job applications, etc.

I too always had trouble spelling my maiden name for people, so I was happy to change it when I got married. My maiden name is a Muslim name as well, so I invariably got pulled aside and questioned whenever I flew. Not fun. Life is much simpler now.

I'll never tell. 

I suppose it could be worse, we could've ended being Julia Guglia a la The Wedding Singer. Now that would suck.

I genuinely love that movie!

I actually really like my maiden name, the surname as a first name thing has never really bothered me   I do have some issues with how Irish Catholic my entire name is, every Irish person I've ever met makes ALOT of assumptions about it! (Including that I am properly Irish (I'm not, my Dad is but we don't get on really) and no one ever works out that I'm half Asian, (that's partly because I am alabaster white) 

Also because I am a producer and have been credited, it would have been really difficult to change it professionally as when people looked up my equivalent of IMDB they wouldn't be able to find me

In addition, I am very lazy and couldn't be bothered to change my bank accounts etc.

I changed mine from difficult for people to spell or pronounce correctly Polish maiden name to hubby's surname.  Now I can get monogrammed stuff like pink trainers with my surname on, LOL

http://www.jamesandjames.com/products/dunlop/dun1555fuschia.htm

One of my bestest friends changed her name from something complex (Italian) to something complex (German) when she got married.  So she never won  

My younger sister changed her last name when she got married because she wanted the same last name as her children.  Likewise, my older sister is a professional musician and is well known as she is,  so no change for her.  (She hates her husband's last name as well, lol)

Just goes to show we're all individual.
 

I genuinely love that movie!

I actually really like my maiden name, the surname as a first name thing has never really bothered me   I do have some issues with how Irish Catholic my entire name is, every Irish person I've ever met makes ALOT of assumptions about it! (Including that I am properly Irish (I'm not, my Dad is but we don't get on really) and no one ever works out that I'm half Asian, (that's partly because I am alabaster white) 

Also because I am a producer and have been credited, it would have been really difficult to change it professionally as when people looked up my equivalent of IMDB they wouldn't be able to find me

In addition, I am very lazy and couldn't be bothered to change my bank accounts etc.

It's a great movie!  

I like my name as well and I never really thought about the whole first name as a surname thing, but other people think it's hilarious. I have no idea why. Surely there are funnier things? I have a very Irish first, middle and surname, so whenever I've had to give my full name here I get "Oh! That's proper Irish that is!" I never really got that in the US because almost everyone has wicked Irish names on the South Shore of Massachusetts.

I completely understand why you wouldn't want to change your name especially the bit about being lazy. I can be very lazy.  


On the subject of changing one's name to have the same name as the children, my friend's mother didn't change her maiden name. When she had children, the first child had the father's last name, the second had the mother's, the third had the father's and if they had a fourth it would have had the mother's. Legally, they all had double-barrelled last names but they didn't use both socially. It was really confusing. They all went to the same high school and I didn't realize they were all related until I became friends with one of them.

 I never really got that in the US because almost everyone has wicked Irish names on the South Shore of Massachusetts.

  your use of wicked there made me smile.

your use of wicked there made me smile.

Yeah 

That would have been me! 
I was divorced, and tired of carrying around my ex-husband's name.  I didn't want to go back to my maiden/birth name, as it was awful-sounding and difficult to spell, and my boyfriend and I have agreed that, as much as we want to stay together forever, we don't want to marry, so I was never going to have *his* name.  So I just picked my own new surname, and I'm very happy with it.  Currently in the process of having all my bills and accounts and ID changed over, but apart from BLOODY PAYPAL(!!!) it's been a smooth and easy transition.

I always say I kept my daughter's last name when I got divorced.  It just happens to be her father's (my ex-husband) last name.  My maiden name was difficult for most people to pronounce, and provoked too many games of "20 Questions" for my liking.

I will never marry again (my choice) and I'm not sure I'd want to change my last name again.  I've lived with this last name almost half my life now.  It's relatively easy to pronounce, and I've "established" myself with it.  I wouldn't want to go through the hassle of changing my name on everything again. 

I always say I kept my daughter's last name when I got divorced.  It just happens to be her father's (my ex-husband) last name.  

I like that way of looking at it

I kept my name for a few reasons.

I am adopted, and I wanted to keep my connection to my adopted family since I don't have a biological connection.  I wanted to still have the same last name as them.

For my career, people know me by my maiden name, and all my publications are in my maiden name. 

It's caused some confusion though - I am Oriental and my last name (due to adoption) is very Irish.  Everyone assumes it's my husband's name and they get a bit befuddled at first when I tell them my O'Irish name is actually MY maiden name.   

your use of wicked there made me smile.

Me too! I giggled!