There are three questions you are guaranteed to be asked the moment you get engaged; When's the big day? When do you plan on having kids? And are you going to change your last name?
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The first one is pretty easy to answer, the second is a personal choice that people shouldn't ask in the first place, while everyone expects you to take on your partners surname.
As Shakespeare once famously wrote, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet'. To answer that, there's a lot in a name.
A rose may be a rose and it may smell just as sweet but when it comes to surnames, and names in general, it's about identity and personal choice.
When I got engaged late last year I was asked all three questions. I had my answers primed and ready to go; big day? July 27 2019. Do you want kids? 'No'. Are you going to change your last name? 'Definitely not.'
There are several reasons as to why I don't want to change my surname to my husband's. Firstly, there really is too much paperwork to fill out and sign. From bank loans, to my drivers licence and everything in between that's a lot of name changing.
Secondly, I have built my personal and professional identity around my name. My husband didn't get my degrees for me and my husband didn't get this job for me. I worked hard to get to where I am today.
We are lucky that we have the choice to change our last names. Around the world, naming rights often depend on cultural practices and laws.
In Spanish speaking parts of the world, children grow up with both their mother's and father's surname and women don't change their last name.
Women in Greece don't change their last names upon getting married either. A law in 1983 saw women retain their birth name in an effort to guarantee gender equality between men and women. The same applies in Italy where women keep their surname but have the option of adding their husband's surname to the end of theirs.
For me, my surname shapes who I am, where I come from and who my family are; competitive, stubborn, loyal and a little bit crazy. I wouldn't change that for anyone.
I haven't always been a fan of my last name, it's hard to spell and hard to pronounce [dem-er-tzis] but it's also the name I was born with, have grown up with and will die with.
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