I think I will never at this point get married and also At this point I will never change my name. But I did choose to add the Brooks to my name unkfficially, and may someday get a legal name change because that is just me and I am glad I chose it. When I was younger, I thought it would depend on how good the name sounded!

My BFF ended up changing her name because when she was going through a hard time, her brother bought her a car and put it in her married name. It was easier to change her name than the title to the car!

Also, Jessica, how in the world do they misspell your last name? It is an actual word. No one misspells any of my name, but they do call me the complete wrong name. My last name is a first name and people also just seem to go with any old name that starts with an n.

People misspell and mispronounce everything. No matter what. It's like a challenge. My last name is six letters long and not difficult. And yet.

I have learned with my last name that people don't generally listen to you pronounce your name, they just try to slot it to a name they know.

No matter now many times I say my last name, spell it out (all four letters) and pronounce it again, a certain number of people will look at me blankly and reply "Mays?"

I even had a substitute teacher insist I must have the spelling of my name wrong.

Yep, I frequently get Holtz. Still have to spell it, but it doesn't take as long as when it was Gustafson or Glodowski.

I once got Noseworthy. But usually Ozone.

People mispronounce my name a fair amount, which is always funny to me, because you just say all the letters in the common English manner.

I am home from the traditional 3rd of July at my uncle and aunt's, which is delightful, even if we got stuck in allllll the traffic yesterday. I think everyone was trying to "beat the crowds."

I never bother saying my last name, I just spell it, with the military alphabet: "C as in Charlie, Z as in zebra, K as in kickoff," etc. They still get it wrong. And they always, always, always ask, "How do you pronounce that?" Dude, I spelled it because you canNOT look at it and then pronounce it. I know this.

Of course I taught second graders to both spell and pronounce it by using a crude word homophone. Make 'em laugh, they'll remember. My maiden name was consistently misspelled and I had no particular attachment to it, not my blood, since adopted. I'd decided long before I would take my husband's name. Heh. A lifetime of spelling and repeated pronunciation has followed. Decent conversation starter, though, should that be needed or desired.

My first name has issues but I quite like that my last name is unusual enough to not be confused with anyone but also quite spellable and pronounce-able