Why I Kept My Name

I got married in 2017 and I kept my last name.

Above: Me at the Museum of Natural History in beautiful Geneva, Switzerland!
I'm standing next to a (taxidermy) yak. Get it?

Currently, this is a pretty permanent decision. I have no intention to change it, and I'm not going to hyphenate it.

I find it interesting that we have such fascination with women who keep their names when they get married. After all, is there nothing more personal than your name? I'll admit, I'm equally curious, so I'm part of the problem as much as I am critical of it (note to self: work on this).

I've seen women in particular make a lot of choices around this for many, many different reasons. Heck, the women in my family alone have done all sorts of interesting things with their last names. It is a highly personal decision and I can very well see why a lot of women opt to change their name or not.

At any rate, since I've been asked this question a fair amount, here's a quick post about why I kept my last name.

It's mine.

My name is mine, and was given to me very intentionally by my parents when I was born. I personally kind of feel like if they raised me, the least I can do is keep the name they gave me.

I like my name.

It's unique, and I'm very proud that my last name is so clearly Japanese in origin. If I didn't actually like my last name I might have changed it just for something shinier, I guess.

It's a good last name.

By which I mean it's not an unfortunate last name (you know, like a body part or something that sounds kinda goofy like 'Julia Gulia' in The Wedding Singer above), and I dare say my name is rather memorable.

It's predictable.

I know this seems like an odd one, and this factor was mostly relevant when I was a student (elementary, high school, university, etc). Think of how often we were told to line up by our last name, or when grade postings, assignments, seating, are arranged by last name--I always know I'll be at or waiting 'til the end, I'm not muddling around the middle somewhere.

Yes, we talked about it.

My spouse and I half-heartedly discussed changing my/our names leading up to our wedding. I say half-heartedly because she has never really cared about this and is a smart gal in knowing this was a losing battle from the start.

We sort-of jokingly tossed around the idea of both of us hyphenating our name, but then we couldn't agree on the name order (i.e, would I be Emily Yakashiro-[wife's last name] or Emily [wife's last name]-Yakashiro?), and neither of us would yield, so here we are.