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You will have to decide what name you want to use when you get married. Since you are not legally required to take your husband's name, you have several choices:
* keep your maiden name
* take your husband's name
* use a hyphen between your maiden name and his last name
* take his name and use your maiden name as a middle name
You should sign the marriage certificate with the name you are going to use legally and make changes on all legal and official documents.
You must decide which name you will use legally and which name you will use socially. If you decide to:
* Use your maiden name professionally and legally and use your husband's name socially; you should use only your maiden name on all legal documents and your tax returns to prevent problems of intermixing the two on legal documents. You may be required to provide the IRS with a notarized copy of your marriage license.
* Take his name legally but continue to use your maiden name professionally and socially; you should use his name on all legal documents.
* Keep your name legally and use his name professionally and socially; you should use your maiden name on all legal documents.
Sometimes the husband takes the wife's name. Although this is not a common practice, it is sometimes done when a wife cannot change her last name for professional reasons or the husband's name is difficult to spell or pronounce and the couple wants to have only one name for family and social reasons. In this case, the husband would make all of the changes on legal and official records.
If you are planning on changing your name after you are married, you may want to take care of some of the changes before the wedding. You should check ahead of time, however, as some require a copy of your marriage license.
If you are moving to a new home or apartment, you will also want to change your address at the same time.
You will need to collect information such as account numbers, policy numbers, date you want the change effective, social security numbers (where applicable), addresses and/or phone numbers of those to contact, as well as your new address and phone number.
Checklist for Changes:
Compiled by the Special Event Network Staff
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