'What's in a name?' or 'To hyphenate or not to hyphenate'

So, no useful information tonight. Just some thoughts that I never thought of. Well, I've thought of them, but I guess not with such urgency.

As for the title, oh, where is my wordsmith man? Well, he is being a wordsmith. He is at a poetry reading/workshop at the Princeton Club. And me, well, Mr. Kitty decided that he wanted to watch one of his favorite movies. While he is watching the frivolities of 18th century France, I'm hauling down Tim's copy of The Riverside Shakespeare - the complete works to make sure I had the right quote (the former, not the latter). Oh, and the photo - I was a Renaissance dancer in college - here I am with my beautiful friend, Ashley. So if you didn't put two and two together -

Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell Gate,
he should have old turning the key. [Knock] Knock, knock,
knock! Who's there, i' th' name of Belzebub? . . . [Knock] Knock,
knock! Who's there, in th' other devil's name?

One of our readers wanted knock knock jokes... there you go! The first one courtesy of Macbeth! (well, the porter) (and not really a knock knock joke, just me being a smart arse).

Yesterday, I was told by our contact at the Knot, that my priority was to get the marriage license. That means, I have to think about what my name will be. Initially, I knew that I wanted to change my name and be a Geaghan. Then I thought, what are the pieces of I.D. that I would need to change and then, I had a moment of what the heck would my name be. Not that I would lose my identity or anything. But, I've been Olivia Morales for 30+ years now. It would be a bit weird to just drop it. But, on the other hand, I would move up in the alphabet scale - from M to G. So, I sent out an SOS to three ladies whom have or will be in this dilemma: Sister-in-law Shanna Farmer Morales, her sister Brenna Farmer (soon to be married to a Chu) and my future sister-in-law (although, I have thought of her as a sister for the last 12 years) Traci Snider.

My questions to these lovely ladies?

Me: I'm having a hard time deciding between becoming a Morales-Geaghan or just a Geaghan. Shanna, you are a Morales - are you completely Morales or are you hyphenated at all? Do you keep Farmer for work or anything? Traci, you are a Snider - no more Geaghan? And Brenna, are you going to be Brenna Farmer-Chu or Brenna Chu or Brenna Farmer? Who knew this was such a hard decision!

Shanna filled me in on what pieces of official documentation I would need to change.
Shanna: is now Shanna Farmer Morales. She dropped her middle name and turned it into Farmer. Now her daughter, and my absolutely adorable niece Sophia has her former middle name - Rachelle.

Brenna: Brenna has very good reasons to stay Brenna Farmer - professional licenses, articles, and professional diplomas all say Brenna Farmer...but she will be Brenna Chu in social life. I like this idea - but I only have one article published as Olivia Morales, and again I like the idea of moving up in the alphabet ladder. And since I know Brenna in social life - she will be Brenna Chu to me...

Then, here comes Traci!
Traci: Traci dropped Geaghan and became Traci Snider - but she did consider changing the middle name. She became Snider for the future kids - but worry not readers, kids are quite far away for this one - one thing at a time! It took 12 years to get married. Maybe another 12 for kids! HA! Anyway, back to Traci's advice. I'm just going to copy from the email - Traci if you are reading this, I hope you don't mind.

2. No matter which way you go, hyphen or not, if you modify your name you'll have to change all the documents like Shanna mentioned below. That said, why not consider having fun and plopping in a total surprise? Olivia Michael Jackson Geaghan, for example.
3. On the "legal name" versus "social" name, if you decide to have Geaghan be on your official documents but keep Morales as what you call yourself just be prepared for all kinds of mistakes and confusion when dealing with insurance, businesses, mortgage, etc. Again, lots of people do it, but it can get messy if people don't pay attention to what you are telling them.
4. Final interesting issue that I never realized until working at the hospital: many, many insurance companies will deny medical claims if the names do not match EXACTLY what they have in their database. Hyphenated names are a nightmare most of the time; now this is a very small thing to consider, but I'm just putting it out there!

So here is the freaky part - I woke up this morning thinking about the name change. So, I asked for help on the matter. But what really woke me up was that I thought of what my initials would be if I changed my name to Olivia Morales Geaghan...and here is what Traci said:

Traci: Ok, I'm done with the official listy part. The real answer is this: change your name to Olivia Morales Geaghan because your initials will be OMG. OMG! Think about how often your intials will be texted, spoken, and mentioned in documents across the globe.

And my response? I kid you not readers at 600 this morning:
I was thinking the exact same thing - my initials would be OMG!!!!!!! I think I snickered a little too loudly because Tim opened some angry sleepy eyes at my silliness....

So, we have some time. Any suggestions Readers?? Maybe I should change it to my future roller derby girl name - Dewey Decimator or La Lupe or Rosie Switchblade or something.

Tomorrow, maybe we'll have more news. For now, Mr. Kitty and I will be lost in 18th century France.