before ABN and i got married, we asked for advice from our friends and family on the last name front. there were many MANY ideas (some highlights included - trying to turn ABN's two last names and my one last name into a new last name, smooshing ABN's two last names together...which at first we loved until someone said it out loud and it became obvious that in order to say the name properly a sound effect needed to be added, or Nani's personal favorite - that we both just take my mom's family name...which makes absolutely no sense). at the end of the day, with no clear alternative in sight, i took the plunge and took ABN's already hyphenated last name. there are other's to carry on W and as long as i can keep my middle name (which is fabulous) i figured i could deal (even if i do have the longest name ever as a result). i was warned but other's with hyphenated last names - but still i pushed forward.
i should have reconsidered when the woman at the social security office laughed out loud when i told her of my proposed new name. i should have run the other way when she brought her coworker over to see the documentation because she just couldn't believe i was going to hyphenate my last name with two names that were not mine. but i pushed forward.
i would just like to announce - i am about to be at my breaking point. somehow, in 2008 the world has still not caught up to the hyphenated last name?! and every SYSTEM has a different SYSTEM for how to deal with this. in order to make this slightly more clear i'll give some examples. for safety purposes....we'll say my new name is SHMIZABETH SHMADER-SHNATAL. for american airlines my tickets say SHMIZABETH SHMADER. delta says SHMIZABETH SHMADERSHNATAL. at PN my official name is SHMIZABETH SHMADER-SHNATAL but i have to log in as SHMADER and my sales get recorded as SHMIZ. how the hell is a girl supposed to keep it all straight? when someone asks me what name goes with THAT account i have no answer!
this all became too much when on the phone this morning with someone at BofA. we opened a new account when we moved to this coast adn our checks still haven't' arrived so i was calling to find out where the hell are our checks. i gave the woman on the other end of the line our account number and she asked for my name. i started with the obvious and then went through every iteration i could possibly imagine, returning back to the name that is imprinted on my BofA credit card (which happens to be SHMIZABETH SHNATAL...so confusing) several times...but she insisted while the account existed i didn't.
i'm now on my way to the bank to straighten this all out...and then off to a 9 hour shift at work...so accept my words of warning....think long and hard about the hyphen....because once you go hyphen, there's no going back.
Posts
