You absolutely nailed another problematic issue — that our birth surnames are our father’s names, anyways. I’ve often thought of that. In that sense, who cares if I changed it to another man’s name? Eventually, I got to the point of wanting to make up a whole new name with a partner if I ever got married — one in which I get to choose, instead of being given another man’s name.

I would’ve loved to have seen the judge’s face! :)

And yes, I hear you on the question thing. In my 40s, that’s the first thing women still ask me about: Have you met anyone, are you dating, are you going to get married, are you going to adopt? The name question doesn’t surprise me, though I’m sorry it comes with unsolicited opinions. I love to chat about subjects like that, just because I’m curious about why people do what they do, but I never ask because I know how sensitive an issue this is and I don’t want anyone to think I’m passive-aggressively judging them.

But honestly, I wish we could have more interesting questions to answer, like what we’ve been doing with our career or how’s motherhood going (really and honestly) or what creative endeavors are we working on…

Thanks for the comment!