What's in a name? 5 women on changing their moniker because of marriage, divorce — or 'Bewitched.'
'She was spunky and fun and had a great personality,' she explains. 'She was ahead of her time, and she fought for things she believed in. Also, she dressed funky! She had such cool clothes.'
And that's how seventh grader Sarit became Samantha.
'Growing up, everyone mispronounced my name; it was annoying,' she says. 'After my citizenship ceremony, I told everyone, 'Now that I'm an American, my name is going to be Samantha.' It just stuck.'
People change their names for any number of reasons, whether it's because they want a moniker that better suits their identity or just really, really like TV witches. But typically, it's marriage (and, later, divorce) that's driving the update. According to a 2023 survey from the Pew Research Center, about 8 in 10 women in opposite-sex marriages took their husband's last name upon tying the knot; 14% kept their name and 5% opted for a hyphenated mashup incorporating both names. Among men, just 5% took on their wife's last name.
'Growing up in a traditional family, I just thought it was something required," says Nicole Williams, who was born Nicole Hall. 'Like, you get married, your last name changes. I didn't know that I had a choice," she adds with a laugh.
There were other upsides to taking her spouse's name. "I was like, 'Well, to be honest, my last name is kind of boring, and I don't have a personal attachment to it,'" she tells Yahoo. "I wanted to separate ties with connections to some members of my family for personal reasons, and taking on a new last name would help drop some of that baggage.'
For the handbag designer known professionally as Julie Mollo, changing her last name to Verderame after getting married last year felt meaningful; 'I'm a hopeless romantic at heart,' she says. But she's kept her maiden name for her eponymous (and super-sparkly) bag line, a distinction that has helped her create better work-life boundaries. 'I always struggled with the blurred lines between my work life and personal life,' she tells Yahoo. 'Moving my studio out of my home was the first step. I can be Julie Mollo when I leave the house and be just Julie when I'm at home.'
Using her married name for her everyday, nonwork life has helped her embrace her entire self. But she appreciates the freedom to switch back and forth depending on the context. 'I'm grateful that my business name is my maiden name,' she says, 'because I never have to lose it or sacrifice it and change who I am.'
As far as the differences between the two Julies? 'I think Julie Verderame is a lot more relaxed, whereas Julie Mollo is much more of a boss,' she quips.
Many of the women who spoke to Yahoo about changing their name after marriage saw it as a symbol of their shared union and an important step toward building a life with their new spouse. The paperwork can be a nuisance, however. Williams, for one, still has student loans under her maiden name.
'I can't change them online and would have to send them my marriage certificate that shows my new last name," she says. "It's just a more difficult process."
Things become even more complicated when it comes to divorce, Brittney Huntington tells Yahoo. When she decided to go back to her maiden name after her split, she encountered an administrative nightmare. 'I not only had to legally change it back, but I also had to go through the painstaking and customized process for each individual credit card/account/mortgage docs, etc., that could only happen once my legal [documents, including her passport, driver's license and Social Security card] were reinstated," Huntington says. 'There was a time when only one was updated, and I needed to travel. That caused some real headaches in proving I was, in fact, me.'
As a new bride, Huntington had mixed feelings about changing her name in the first place but ultimately agreed because it was what her then-husband wanted.
'My father had passed away when I was young and had no sons, so my sister and I were the only ones able to carry on any sort of legacy of his name,' she says. 'It was very important for me to keep Huntington in there somehow, so I decided to move it to my middle name.' She also tacked on Huntington as a second middle name for her daughter.
It's an "embarrassingly long name," she admits, but it's proved helpful now that the two no longer share a last name. 'Having continuity with my maiden name in both my own name and hers has made it easier to prove I'm me (and her parent) on subsequent government and health care documents,' she says.
And though there are still some outstanding random things listed under her married name, she has otherwise fully and comfortably gone back to Huntington. 'It is, and always will be, Huntington."
Of course, there's another route to take when it comes to changing your name after divorce: making up a new one. After her first marriage ended in divorce, writer Cheryl Strayed famously opted not to keep her ex's last name or go back to her maiden name. Instead, the avid hiker and Wild author settled on Strayed, a nod to her wanderlust spirit and uprooted situation.
Erin Duran also went with option C after her divorce. And if you're thinking, 'Like the band, Duran Duran?' ... well, yes.
'In 2022, I got divorced, and my ex-husband was insistent that I didn't keep his name,' Duran tells Yahoo. 'My mom, who is a giant hippie, has changed her name multiple times. After rejecting a few of my ideas, she was like, 'Why don't you pick something you love?' Music is what I love most." She zeroed in on her favorite new wave acts. A nod to David Bowie or The Smiths? The first was "too obvious," the second too "boring." And then: "We stumbled across Duran Duran."
"Erin Duran sounded nice, easy to spell," says the divorcée, who was heartened when her friends didn't laugh when she ran the idea by them. But she admits that she wasn't really thinking clearly when she made the name change official.
'I got COVID during my divorce proceedings,' she says. 'I'm in bed with a fever, and my lawyer says he needs a name for the paperwork. I don't know if I would have done it if I had been in [my] full faculties. I don't mind being weird, but it's a commitment.'
Today, she has no regrets. She likes the way the name flows, and where it lands in the alphabet ('I grew up with the last name Wright and knew the pains of being [last]," she explains).
Most importantly, though, she likes how the name makes her feel.
'I didn't go back to my maiden name because it felt like a retreat or defeat or something,' Duran says. 'It just didn't feel right to go backward. I wanted to take control of my next chapter. To define it.'
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Giving your kids a '90s-style summer is all the rage. Is it even possible to pull off now?
Are screen-free, unstructured summers too good to be true? In a now-viral Instagram post from last year, Nebraska mom Markay Cunningham narrates a typical summer day for kids in the '90s: Food was a box of ice pops plopped on the ground, water came from the hose around the corner, and the rule was to stay outside unless you're hurt or it's storming. In the clip, Belinda Carlisle's 'Heaven Is a Place on Earth' plays in the background. It's a snapshot of the quintessential summer vacation of yore: unstructured time, low supervision and not a screen in sight. No wonder everyone's reminiscing about '90s summers and trying to re-create the magic for their own kids. The question is, Is it really what today's parents want? 'It's kind of making me feel like shit,' Big Little Feelings co-founder (and Yahoo parenting ambassador) Kristin Gallant recently said on Instagram. 'I think it's a great concept if it works for your family. The problem is, for a lot of us it just doesn't.' For starters, Gallant pointed out, many working parents rely on the structure and supervision that summer camp provides. Single-income families are much less common today compared with decades past, and with both parents at work, the freedom to roam all day isn't really an option. Parents of neurodivergent and highly sensitive children may also take issue with the trend, Gallant added. Routines mean predictability, which can lessen anxiety and improve focus. A large swath of unstructured time could bring about feelings of dysregulation instead of relaxation in these kids. Other modern-day concerns make a '90s summer seem more like a hazy daydream than a real-life approach to the season. Here's what parents told us they're up against. The screen struggle Author Kelly Oxford recently took to her Substack to eulogize the '90s, lamenting that with the birth of screens came the death of patience and boredom — two necessities to any kid's summer vacation. But screen time has become so baked into our lives that opting out is almost unheard of, says Shayl Griffith, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, Recreation and School Psychology at Florida International University (FIU) and researcher at FIU's Center for Children and Families. 'Because devices and content are more easily accessible and varied, having a 'low-tech' summer would be very difficult for most families without deliberate planning and structure,' Griffith tells Yahoo. ''Low-tech' and 'unstructured' for most families is not going to go hand in hand in this digital landscape.' In other words, kids without a schedule are bound to wind up scrolling through YouTube all day instead of running through the sprinkler with pals from the neighborhood. Being intentional is the antidote, Griffith says. Whatever that looks like is up to each family. She recommends parents talk with their children about what their ideal summer includes — time outdoors, playing with friends, pursuing a hobby, etc. — and let those pursuits lead the way. 'A screen time routine for the summer should then be built to fit around these other important and valued activities and goals,' she says. Fostering independence — to a degree Oxford tells Yahoo Life that '90s kid summers don't work today because the world is different. 'You can't put your kid outside until the streetlights come on when Karen next door will call Child Services,' she says. 'You can't let them walk to the corner store when every parent is tracking their location with an app.' Even when phone-free time is intentional, it can still be nerve-racking. Elizabeth Cuneo, an operations manager from Denver, says she's happy that her 15-year-old daughter and their friends sometimes pile their phones together when they hang out. But it's also stressful because it means 'none of the parents can reach the kids,' she says. She looks for the middle ground wherever possible. For example, her daughter is allowed to take the bus by herself but only to certain agreed-upon places. Her 13-year-old son also knows how far he is allowed to venture off solo. 'We're trying to be more OK with them going within a boundary,' Cuneo says. 'I'm trying to give them freedom within that box, and part of what makes that possible is [knowing] people in my neighborhood. It helps me feel safe.' Neighborhood watch Indeed, many say the opportunity to lean on other parents is essential to the success of a '90s kid summer. Jessica Penzari, a publicist from New York City, says that during the school year in the Big Apple, she is watching her 7-year-old son 'like a hawk.' But when the family treks down to Virginia each summer, all the local moms chip in. 'Parents watch out for each other,' Penzari says. 'It's more insulated and slower-paced, so I feel a lot more comfortable letting him walk to a friend's house up the street.' But just as other parents can be vital to a child's burgeoning independence, they can also interfere with it. Peter Lo, a communications technology professional from the Bay Area, says it can be awkward seeing other parents hovering over his kids, ages 4 and 7, as they play. 'I sometimes think they're judging us,' he says. 'But [kids] need some controlled failure and some degree of risk.' Penzari agrees, adding that her son needs to develop his own sense of self without mom helicoptering above. 'It's really hard for kids to foster their own sense of self when you're with them,' she says. What comes next? One potential caveat of the '90s kid summer: the return to real life in the fall. The start of the school year — with its packed schedules and endless to-do lists — can be dizzying for a child who has spent all summer living a more analog life. Griffith encourages consistency wherever possible to smooth the transition back to school. 'When routines are changed during the summer, it can be difficult to change them back at the start of the school year,' she says. So maybe a screen-free, low-supervised summer just isn't realistic right now. Or maybe some parts of it are. The most important thing, Griffith adds, is to create a setup that works for your family. "There is no one right way to 'do' summer,' she says. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The News Is Filled With Stories About Co-Workers Biting People — WTF Is Happening?
You don't often get to choose who you work with. You might have to fend off managers who dismiss you, colleagues who discredit you –– and in some rare cases, a co-worker who bites you? According to multiplereports, a New York City-based summer law associate at a prestigious law firm got dismissed after biting several colleagues. In Above the Law, the outlet reported that the bites were 'not in an aggressive, 'we're beefing' way,' but that they were more than just a 'nibble.' HuffPost reached out to Sidley Austin, the firm where the associate reportedly worked, and has not heard this is not the first time a person has been accused of chomping on the flesh of their colleague in recent days. In June, 'Cobra Kai' actor Alicia Hannah-Kim accused her co-star Martin Kove of biting her arm hard after she tapped him on the shoulder to greet him at a VIP section. Kove later issued a public apology to his 'Cobra Kai' co-star.'I was being playful in the moment but went too far and there is absolutely no excuse for my behavior,' Kove stated in his apology. Biting your colleagues, no matter for what 'playful' reason, is wrong, and yet the number of reported instances suggests that a public service announcement is needed on what kind of platonic touch is acceptable between colleagues at work. Managers who have experience with difficult or bizarre colleagues shared what they think might be going on here. What Might Drive A Co-Worker To Bite Alison Green, who has been giving workplace advice for over a decade on her 'Ask A Manager' site, has firsthand experience with a workplace biter. In 2017, Green received a letter from a person who was driven to bite her toxic office manager when he blocked her path and refused to get out of her way. In an update, the letter writer stated that she still hadn't left her job, nor had she been fired, and the biting was 'crazy,' but an appropriate response to abusive working conditions filled with name-calling and cursing.'I certainly haven't done it again and don't plan to. But in the long run, my office manager is a raging jerk,' the biter wrote. 'Please, show me you can do better. In the end I feel bad... but not that bad.'In this way, biting doesn't just raise alarm bells about your person; it might also indicate that you are in a toxic job where rude, aggressive behavior is being normalized. 'In my letter-writer's case, it sounded like she had been working in a dysfunctional, combative office for so long that her norms had been thrown off, and the urge to bite was a form of breaking under that pressure,' Green told HuffPost. 'It alarmed me that she didn't see it more clearly as a sign that something was very, very wrong in that office.'But whether this is a misguided and inappropriate 'playful' bite or a reaction made under extreme duress, you should still keep your teeth to yourself at work. This is what Green advised the alleged summer associate biter, which is good advice for any would-be biters:'Don't bite anyone at work ever again! It's a form of assault, and the fact that she thought it was OK says she probably needs some serious remedial education in how to relate to people at work,' Green said. 'The only people you should ever bite are those who have given their explicit consent, and at work that should never even be under discussion!' Case closed. Never bite your co-worker. And be cautious about how you touch them in general. Stories of workplace biters are thankfully rare. You may go your whole career without a colleague mashing their teeth into your arm, but it's much more common to deal with the conundrums of whether or not to hug or pat your colleague on the back. Know that the most acceptable form of touch in a workplace is a routine handshake. They are familiar enough 'in business that I don't think people need to worry about getting explicit consent before offering a handshake,' Green Dudley, a psychologist and behavioral expert, said that a high-five or fist bump can also satisfy the same positive desire of 'hooray, we're on the same team' that a handshake does. But beyond these simple greetings, be cautious. Patting someone on the back or shoulder after they do great work may seem harmless to you, but many people don't enjoy being touched at work, especially by people in positions of power over them. Dudley said to consider whether the touch you want to give can be reciprocated before you do it: 'Who touches whom is a function of who has the power. So we want to make sure, whenever we touch someone... that we touch them in a way that invites them to touch us back the exact same way.' If you're a boss, you may have the power to pat your direct report's shoulder, but they cannot pay you back because of the power dynamic between your positions, Dudley in doubt, watch how your co-worker interacts with their peers and bosses before offering them anything more than a handshake. 'Aside from handshakes, I'd say default to not touching coworkers,' Green advised. 'If someone has shown themselves to be a hugger, for example, they're probably someone who will be more welcoming of a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. But otherwise, or if you haven't seen enough to be sure, err on the side of no physical touch.''There are other ways to express warmth at work — through words, tones, smiles,' Green continued. 'Very few people will say they're disappointed that their colleague didn't touch them; far more people will say they felt uneasy when someone did.'If only the biters among us took this advice to heart. Related... Everyone Is Ridiculing The 'Gen Z Stare' Online. Here's What They're Missing. 6 Signs Your Boss Might Be A Narcissist How to Tell When Your 'Tough Boss' Is Really A Toxic Boss


Fox News
34 minutes ago
- Fox News
Sisters create successful beachwear brand as teens
Long Island sisters Madison and Paige Governale join 'Fox & Friends' with their Wave Creations apparel and jewelry brand that found success after going viral during COVID.