what's in a name?

Well, it's official, I'm Mrs. "S" -- on my driver's license, with Social Security, at my bank, and the plethora of companies who now need to update my accounts with my new name. This has not been your traditional "show-em-your-marriage-license-and-they-change-your-name" process.

Even before we got engaged, Rick and I had talked about the name change. All his life, he's had the name of a father he never knew, yet raised by his maternal grandparents who he loves dearly. And so his quest for identity lay centered on his last name. His whole life Rick was an "N" raised by "S's" and since I was only going to change my name once, I wanted to make sure he was committed to "N" or ready to make the change to "S."

And that nudge was all he needed. We would become Mr. & Mrs. S.

So now that we've been home for our first weekend since the wedding, and all of the ticketed travels are complete for now, the opportunity was wide open to start the name change process.

Rick and I headed into the court house on Friday to petition for a name change. We sat through nearly 30 minutes of contested traffic violations (I learned a lot by watching this and will not ever just pay a ticket again -- I will be going to court to contest as every single person got off on technicalities). And then it was our turn. Rick was called up and had to attest that he was indeed a resident of Washington, a U.S. citizen and not required to register as a sexual predator, the judge granted the name change. My turn next. Followed the same line of questioning and voila, I was M.R.D.S. Yep, I couldn't fathom letting go of any of my names, so I just shoved my middle and maiden name together as my middle names, and then took on S as my one and only surname.

Rick had the whole day off of work, and I was taking advantage of my flexible work schedule to spend the rest of the morning with Rick running the necessary errands to complete the name change process. First off to Driver's Licensing. Got the temporary license, with a new picture -- thank goodness. Then to the Social Security Administration to show the court order and update our SSN cards. And since we had some more time, we jumped to our banks and updated our financial accounts.

Whew! That's the tough part. So yesterday was spent on the phone calls, faxes and mail in updates that required copies of our court orders to change the names. New passport applications were sent off in the mail, all of the utility companies have been contacted, credit cards and airline mile programs have been notified and provided the documentation, and the employers have been updated. I'm trying to figure out how my email at work will change and if I will be able to keep my maiden name in the address book along with the new last name. Identity crisis may ensue soon!

So I'm hoping I've been thorough enough that there won't be any surprises -- people I forgot to contact or update.