Newlywed Needs

Looking for name change advice or some tips for newlywed life? The MissNowMrs experts have created state-specific name change articles and checklists for you. We’ve chronicled our recommendations for how to travel while changing your name AND how to handle voting during the transition.

We’ve also compiled our best guidance for how to handle difficult sister in laws, holidays as newlyweds, the ever-annoying baby questions, and much more. Why? Because, while we are name change experts, we’re also newlywed wives, moms, and sisters.

We hope our name change advice articles help smooth your transition to your new name, and a whole new phase of life. Congratulations and best wishes from the entire MissNowMrs team!

Married Name Change: Why Now Is Better Than Later

Most newlyweds wait a few months to change their names after marriage, so after the Spring/Summer wedding boom comes a flurry of name changes in the Fall. While not every woman should change her name, it is advisable for newlyweds intending to make the legal switch to Mrs. to do so as soon as they can.

Why? It’s pretty simple: the more things with your maiden name on them, the longer it will take you to change all of them to your new married name! The longer you wait to change your name, the more “stuff” you accumulate with your maiden name on it.

This “stuff” includes big things like mortgages, leases, vehicle titles, insurance policies and smaller things like airline miles and gym memberships. Outside of the entities mentioned, as the holidays approach “other stuff” lurks….stuff like holiday cards, mis-engraved gifts from family members (seriously), and company awards (I have a massive plaque showing a hyphenated last name I never took).

So, if you’re married and pondering name change, now is the time to pull the trigger. You can DIY and figure out the SS-5, IRS 8822, Passport 5504 and other government form gems using our free married name change checklist or save 13 hours of name-change form research, completion, and filing by using the MissNowMrs online name change service. We condense the 13 hour process of becoming a Mrs. into 30 minutes for $30…..which seems like a very nice pre-holiday gift for you from you!

Blending Last Names: The Inside Scoop on Unconventional Name Change

The concept of blending last names after marriage makes sense. You were two independent people with different lives and different names. As you marry, you begin to blend your lives, finances, goals, families, and dreams together. A blended last name is a tangible representation of your newly blendedness (yes I made that word up).

While a combined last name may seem like a great option as newlyweds, the government doesn’t agree. As a name change service, we know all about the red tape associated with legal married name change, but it isn’t common knowledge. So here’s the scoop.

California residents are the only engage people in the US that have the option to blend their last names using the married name change process. BUT both partners must write the new last name on their marriage license application. If you think of blending after your wedding… you’re out of luck. Make that one more reason to discuss name change before saying “I do.”

What if you don’t live in California and still want to blend your last names? Traditionally both partners have to petition the court system for a legal name change order. Those documents, once issued, will allow you both to go through the name-change process and change your names. It’s not fun, but it’s how it’s done.

I recently read an article about a newlywed couple in Brooklyn who combined their last names from Franklin and Reed to Franklin Reed. They petitioned the court prior to their wedding and the judge granted their request. They celebrated with the #FranklinReedNoHyphen hashtag at their wedding! This goes to prove that where there is a will, there is a way. Even in married name change!

Should you need help changing your name, the MissNowMrs App and service can save you 13 hours of hassle.

Photo credit: Rachel Kara

Married Name Change & Summer Vacation

It’s almost Memorial Day! Have you thought about married name change & summer vacation yet? In the blur of BBQs, parties, and your new life as a newlywed don’t forget about your name change. If you’re planning to change your maiden name after marriage, or have already started the process, now is the time to file all of your legal forms!

The worst thing you can do is partially change your name, or tell your spouse you changed it (but sorta haven’t). True story: I started changing my name and after three failed trips to get my new driver’s license in my new name, I had the idea for MissNowMrs. I wanted to be the first person to beta test my name-change service, so I put my personal transition to Mrs. on hold.

Everything was fine until my husband surprised me with a trip to Mexico. Which, he booked in my married name. But, my passport was in my maiden name. Cue the running around frantically calling the State Department and spending an entire day in line getting an expedited passport. I still have the worst-possible frazzled passport photo and cannot wait to file for a new passport next year.

Don’t let this happen to you! Learn from my married name change & summer vacation misadventures and change your name completely. It’s like pulling off a band aid. It’s so much more painful if you slowly drag it out. Just do it! The best news is, you can use the MissNowMrs app or easy online name change service to streamline the 13 hour process into 13 minutes and enjoy your summer travel with zero drama as a Mrs.

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Christine Bleakley Changes Her Name to Mrs. Lampard!

Another woman in the spotlight is changing her name after marriage! Christine Bleakly, a television presenter across the pond, recently married a former English soccer player, Frank Lampard. We just heard the rumor that Christine Bleakley changes her name to Mrs. Lampard after a gorgeous December wedding.

There a several key factors in a woman’s life that influence her name change decision. Age is a telling factor, as statistics show the older a woman is when she marries, the more likely she is to keep her maiden name. Christine is 37, so that would lean her towards keeping her name. She is also a media person, with name recognition. Studies have found that the more a women uses her name in her profession, the less likely she is to change it after saying “I do.”

Christine has a younger sister, and no brothers which is another factor that plays into name change decisions. When women do not have brothers to carry on the family name, they can be more inclined to carry it on themselves.

Education is yet another factor that plays into name change (complicated right?). Christine pursued a degree in politics, but did not finish her college education. The less education a woman has, the more likely she is to change her name. This doesn’t imply that women who change their names are unintelligent. It is more along the lines of women with their maiden names on advanced degrees are less likely to go through the hassle of changing to a married name. If you’re curious how the various scientific factors weigh in for your ideal name change, play the Married Name Game!

The final factor is the one that trumps all others…love. Many a name-change nay-sayer has met the love of their life and shocked everyone (including themselves) by joyfully changing their names. Mrs. Amal Clooney is a wonderful example of a professional woman who changed her name and seems all the happier for it.

While we’ll have to wait to see if Christine Bleakley change her name. We wish the new Mrs. Lampard a wonderful marriage filled with love, happiness, and adventure!

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Make a Difference In the World for Women Entrepreneurs

Hi there nearlyweds and newlyweds! You may not know, but our founder recently wrote a book for women entrepreneurs to help them start their own companies. Her decade building MissNowMrs from an idea sparked by the frustration of her own name-change mishaps into a company with over 500,000 customers gave her some business insights. Add in the fact that she doesn’t have an MBA and was an accidental entrepreneur and you’re starting to see the sort of book she might right. Below Danielle shares why she wrote Elegant Entrepreneur: The Female Founder’s Guide to Starting & Growing Your First Business, and how you can help her on her mission to get more women to startup around the world!
When I wrote Elegant Entrepreneur, my intention was to help women in America turn their ideas into successful companies, even if they didn’t have an MBA. I wrote the book I always looked for when I founded MissNowMrs. A book that gave me the steps to building a business, told me how it might feel during those steps, and offered candid advice and stories from women entrepreneurs I could look up to. I was delighted to help more women startup and scale up in a more elegant fashion than I did.
What about women outside of the U.S.? While I didn’t originally think globally, after attending roundtable talks with women entrepreneurs from North Africa at the Goldman-Sachs 10k women event, I realized that there were so many women who needed my book, and that I had no way to get it to them.
Problem: Many women in emerging economies don’t have access to Amazon or Kindles
Solution: Create an audiobook that can be hosted as an MP3 file and played instantaneously by any phone in the world.
Today am launching a Kickstarter campaign to increase awareness for the need to support international women entrepreneurs and to crowdfund the audiobook version of Elegant Entrepreneur. The audiobook format allows me to donate books to women entrepreneurs across the world without the costs and time delays of printing and shipping books. It also helps women who may be forbidden to read an entrepreneurial book access information to help them build their businesses. My goal is to make a ripple effect of women building businesses and improving their lives, their families, their communities, and their economies.
Why am I focusing on women entrepreneurs? Aside from being one myself and understanding how entrepreneurship has positively impacted my life, a recent IFC study cited by Forbes, found women in emerging markets invest 90 percent of their income back into their families and communities, compared with 35 percent for men. Women in business are the key to ending poverty and inhumanity on a global scale.
She Inspires Her Network, Connecting Founders, Invest2Innovate, and Jitahidi Group have agreed to provide free Elegant Entrepreneur audiobooks to aspiring female entrepreneurs within their networks.
Please consider donating to my Kickstarter campaign. $5 will send 5 audiobooks to aspiring entrepreneurs, and you will have taken part in creating a positive ripple effect. The more you give and the more you share the campaign with your friends, the more women will receive the audiobook, and the more businesses will be created by them… changing lives and communities for the better!

Danielle Tate is the founder of MissNowMrs name change service.