What's in a name?

First off, major props to all of you who know the context of my post title today!

Okay.  Here we go.  I have a major confession to make.  And it's about my name.  I love my name.  I'm named after my grandmother on my dad's side and I have this beautiful, super italian, unique, no-one-can-say-it, 4-syllable last name that is shared with a gorgeous Italian castle.  I know I'm biased but all those other names out there just don't compare to it.

The castle that is my namesake:

Source

My whole life I've known my mom with this name.  I've known tons of married people and it never really dawned on me that at one point in their lives, they had a different name.  And one day my name would no longer be, my name.  I know that in today's world a lot of women don't change their names, but I think if you want to have kids one day it makes things so much easier if you have the same last name as your husband. 

But, I have to be honest that I'm not very happy about the prospect of changing my name.  Not that there's anything wrong with my new last name.  But it's just 1-syllable, simple, easy to say.  My whole name will now be reduced to as many syllables as my old last name.  Including my middle name.  It just doesn't seem right.

Oh, and one more thing.  I'm a published author.  That's right.  I'm in graduate school for Chemistry and my last name is on a few publications and one patent.  So changing my name means that no one will be able to find all my accomplishments. 

Do you realize how much documentation needs to be done in order to change your last name?  It's such a pain in the butt.  Here's a list of just *some* of the things I'll need to change, just to give you an idea.

Car insurance, car registration, health insurance, my bank records, all of my credit cards, my driver's license, social security card, tax forms, and the list goes on.... 

All this being said I do want to say that I do love my fiance and I am so happy to be marrying him.  Just not dealing with all the hassle of changing everything.  I am going to change my name legally.  But probably not for awhile in the workplace.  So I'll have two different names for awhile.  I've considered hyphenating, but it gets a little ridiculous with such a long last name.  I have some time to decide on that front.


Oh, and if you're wondering about the post title.  It's from Shakespeare and quite appropriate, I think, for me:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; so Romeo would, were he not Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee take all myself."