Midnightstar

I also changed my surname through marriage. Now I'm divorced I've considered changing back to my maiden name, though I will only change it when my youngest is old enough to understand why I've taken the decision to change my name

EviesEarth

I kept my maiden name. Although it only shows up on legal papers. For day to day things I just use my married name.
I kept my maiden name becuase it means a lot to me. Also, I have some liscenes and certificates with my maiden name and it was easier to keep both names than to have to change all the certificates.

manephelien

Here you're only allowed to have one name, i. e. you can't change the name for some things and not change it for others. The only exception to this rule are some actors, artists and authors who prefer to use a pseudonym for professional reasons. But even they must sign all legally binding documents with their legal name, and except for people who are in the process of changing names, it's illegal to possess IDs for more than one name at a time. A woman who changes her name when she gets married, must carry a copy of her marriage license with her until she gets all IDs changed to the new name.

RoxyMoron

Where is "here" by the way? I think that is a bit unfortunate that you do not have a choice in the matter, but then again it makes it less confusing for ie the government, bill collectors, etc to find you...

manephelien

Finland. Oh yes. We also have quite strict rules as to which names are acceptable and which aren't (gender-neutral names aren't allowed, and a name must be acceptable in the culture of at least one parent to be used, and no brand names or names of objects can be given as names to children, weird spellings are discouraged, and you can give up to three names and two surnames to a child). As a consequence, a person may change his or her name only once for reasons not including marriage or divorce, this usually happens with adults who are unhappy with a given first name, or want to change the order of their names if they're using a middle name. And as an amendment to the above, men can also take the woman's name when they marry, but that's quite rare. Although sometimes you see both spouses taking the same hyphenated name.

Sara

I don't prefer to change my name......

Sara