Changing Lastname

One of my collegues changed his lastname. When I happened to swing by his office accidently, I thought I might as well take this opportunity to ask him what prompted him to change his lastname. He told me he got married. I was like "what.. isnt it the woman who changes her lastname". He told me that both he and his wife decided to mix both their lastnames and come up with a new one. Hence the change.

This incident brought to my mind an interesting conversation I had with my friends in grad school. When this topic came up, two of my guy friends were adamant about their wife having to adopt their name as her lastname. The feminist in me was like "if she adopts ur first name as her last name, will you adopt hers as ur last name". For that, their response was like " what A B .. B A va ?".

One of my american collegues had to change her last name to that of the rest of the family to avoid questions about her marriage and save her kids from embarassment.

I have strong sentiments attached to my last name. I want to retain my Dad's name (my last name is my Dad's first name) in my name though not necessarily as my last name. I want to call myself his daughter till the end of my life.. I am what today because of my dad :).