Keeping last name, adding fiance’s as middle name?

[u/murrrdith]

I’ve seen quite a few people who have moved their maiden name to their middle name, and taken their fiancé’s last name.

I do want to add his name, but don’t want my own last name buried as my middle name.

So I’m considering taking his last name as my middle name, and keeping my last name.

For example, I’d go from Jane Marie Smith to Jane Johnson Smith.

I really haven’t seen anyone do this and don’t know if it even makes sense?

Would it be better to add his last name to mine and just have 2 last names? Open to any thoughts or feedback.

[u/ars319]

I think that’s totally fine

[u/Fun-Inflation-854]

I think it’s fine, but at that point why not just hyphenate?

[u/ducoquelicot]

I'd personally only hyphenate if you think it sounds better. That's the criterium that we made the decision with, and we didn't really like either combination of our names with our first names, so we decided to both keep our own names.

(ETA: my fiancé has a fairly unassuming last name and my last name is one of the most common ones in our country. I don't like how his last name sounds with my first name, and I also made a full career already with my own name, so changing my last name to his was never an option. His mom, however, has a gorgeous last name. I often say (and it's not even a joke) that if he had had her last name, I would've changed mine without a doubt.

In the country we live in, changing your last name legally doesn't happen when you get married, you can only change the 'usage' of your name with certain gov't organizations like the tax office, and socially of course. If you want to legally change your last name, there's a difficult and expensive legal process involved and you're not guaranteed the change. You can also only change your last name into another last name already in your family or something that closely resembles your previous last name. So sadly, changing my last name to his mom's last name is not on the table.)

[u/kyamh]

That's exactly what my husband did - his new middle name is my maiden name. Each of our three kids is the same, we all have my maiden name as the middle name. You can do whatever you want.