CHANGING NAMES

Sure enough, you may need to change your name if you go into witness protection, but name change as a result of marriage is a more common (and less stressful!) way of doing it.

First of all some facts:

• A wife is not legally obliged to adopt her husband's surname.

• A partner is free to revert to their maiden name at any point in the marriage.

• Where children are concerned, the parent with whom the children live has to get consent from the other natural parent before changing a child's surname, or if consent is not given, via a court application.

Traditionally, the Bride will change her surname to that of her new husband's. That said, a trend that is growing in popularity these days is for both partners to adopt a double-barrelled surname in which a combination of both partners surnames is used - the new surname is usually hyphenated. It is also more common these days for wives to retain their maiden name, particularly if they are well known (just look towards Hollywood for multiple examples of this). Less common, although still viable options, are for the wife to take her maiden name as a middle name or for the husband to adopt the surname of their wife.