If you get married, will you change your last name? Do you expect your partner to take your last name? Will you take some sort of middle-ground option? Explain.

As most of you know, I am in law school, and this seems to be a bit of a contentious subject among my friends and colleagues. I just wondered what you all thought.

I honestly couldn't care. The current is also in a professional career, and it might be important for her to keep her last name. It's her call if we make it that far.

I love my last name. I'd hyphen it, depending on if it is as kick-ass as mine. Oooh, like if it was McQueen. Hell yeah.

I'd change it. Really, if it were cooler than Fletcher.

@ Carlo: haha, would you really?

@ Heraldic55: that's good. I understand the bit about establishing your professional name. I have several friends who haven't changed their names for that reason.

@ emily: I think that's a great name! At least you're probably difficult to Google stalk, eh?

If you google my name, one of the early hits is International Mr. Leather from, I think, 1997.

Law: Yeah. I have to connection to my father's last name whatsoever. I stopped using it years ago.

All this name-changing stuff seems like more trouble than it's worth.

@ centropomus: But you know, it's really important to some people. I've talked to people on both sides. A lot of my married female friends haven't changed their names because they are Latinas who don't want to leave a huge portion of their identity behind just because they married a non-Latino dude. While other friends of mine are more traditional and would be devastated if their future/current spouse didn't take their last name. It's sort of expected. People just seem to feel strongly on both sides.

It doesn't matter to me one way or the other, but hyphenating my italian last name would just be mean to any children i might have.

i'm going to probably take his name. i don't have any attachment to my stepfather's name and i would get rid of it now given an adequate substitute.

I will change my last name. I am old-fashioned sometimes.

EMILY. Is his first name Preston, by any chance?!

Of course it turns out he's gay. I was never really romantically interested. I just wanted a fun last name.

He was part of my harem of gay menz that I couldn't get out of my apartment freshman year.

Was that for Halloween?! I may have taken those pictures!

THIS IS SRSLY TOO WEIRD. I can't believe I met someone on the internet who knows Preston!

I did, in fact, take that photograph, in the hall outside my freshman dorm.