When you get married and change your name legally, can you still use your maiden name for work?

Answer 1

When you change your name legally, you have to change the name on your social security card. Your employer goes by your social security card name, and so does the IRS. Either don't take your husband's name, or hyphenate it.

Answer 2

You can use any name you want when you get married, as long as you are not intending to defraud people. There is no legal requirement to change your name to your spouse's name.

When I got married 29 years ago, I went to a lawyer to ask about the name change thing. He explained to me that in marriage, name change is by usage; there are no papers to file, you can use any name you want.

I hyphenated my name, because at that time doing the hyphenation thing was a way of making a statement. My maiden name is nine letters long, my husband's name is also nine letters long. Both names are hard to pronounce (French and Italian). Boy has it been a pain in the patootie dealing with that.

Use whatever name you like best and is easiest for you. Good luck.

Answer 3

If you legally change your name, then you have to use that legal name for everything. If you want to continue to use your maiden name for work, then you can't legally change your name. When you sign documents or checks, the only one that is recognized is your LEGAL name ... that's why it's called your legal name. If you legally change your name and still use your maiden name, the government won't recognize it at all and it could cause problems in your work. I hope that helps.

Answer 4

Yes you can. My professional licenseure is in my maiden name, and so my clients use that name, my business cards, and so on. My paychecks, however, are issued in my married name-the only people who need to deal with that are HR people. When you go through the name change process (driver's license, bank acount, social security, passport) you can speak to the HR people where you work about how they arrange these things.

Answer 5

My friend is using her maiden name for work purposes. So on paper it needs to be her married last name, but you can use your maiden name for work, especially if you have already made a name for yourself with your work.

Answer 6

You can, but your tax info & such will have to be in your legal name. If you still want to go by your maiden name for clients (or whatever, depends on your job of course) that should be fine. But it could end up causing some confusion later on.

Answer 7

I think, you can use whatever name you want in unofficial situations - but in something more "official" you would have to use your real legal name. You might want to check with your work in which situations it would be required to use your legal name.

If you feel you absolutley must continue using your name - why not just keep it? You can use your husband's name in social situations if you wish, but your legal name would remain the same as before marriage. Just a thought.

Answer 8

Yeas. I am doing the Same thing. I was thinking of hyphenating but it would be too long. So I am just legally making my last name a second middle name to keep it. Legally I will sign his last name, but at work will us mine.

Answer 9

if you changed your name, then for work you have to change your name to,for social security purposes,and for retirement, your name goes with your social security number, but just because you get married doesn't mean you have to change your name, you can keep your maiden name

Answer 10

Yes. There are people who still do that. they use there professional name when they are at work but outside of work they use their married name. I do not see anything wrong with that at all.