Name Change hyphenate or complete change?

Question

I have been married for several years but have not changed my name (personal family reasons). I now want to change my name to match my husband and son but would like to keep my maiden name as part of my name. Will that help me legally? I have a long history of things under my maiden name and if will be very hard to change it all over, will having both names as my legal name help if I forget to change something?

Answer 1

You can hyphenate your name legally.  However, I do not believe you are permitted to change your sons name without a court order.  Just because you get married, does not mean that everyone gets a new name.  

Answer 2

You can hyphenate without legally making that your name but it will most likely become confusing down the line since your maiden name is of public record. Your hyphenated name will have to become your legal name if you want it on your SS card, license etc.. and also to change your marriage certificate. I know its a headache because i went through the same thing, most of it was a simple phone call to change my name over. Other stuff i had to go down in person and show them all my documents to change things over. I would think that if you did forget to change something over, because you have legally changed you name, which means you would have to update your SS, ID etc.. there is going to be a public record of your name change. but i would try to change everything over so there is no confusion.