Hi, my name is Casey Mendoza. And in basically all of my
stories, I say my name at the end, Casey mendoza, dais
Chicago. We're doing something a little different today
because my last name is changing. I got married last
year and like many other newly married people, I
decided on changing my last name. Both my husband and I
are changing our last name to something. We completel
made up Coda. It's a combination of letters from his
old last name. Connor with some letters from mine,
Mendoza. I think when people here, they did that you do
that, you're like, wow, it almost feels like a little
game of Thrones. You know, like first of his name, like
ever before I answer the question, wait, you can do
that. I should clarify that professionally. I am
keeping my last name. So this banner you see right here,
that's not changing. But the decision we made to create
a new last name isn't a common one. And even my
husband's decision to change his last name is rare.
Just 3% do according to a 2018 survey from the Journal
of Family issues. That's why there is no male
equivalent for the term maiden name. But while the norm
for heterosexual couples in the U.S. Is still for women
to take on their husbands last names, nontraditi
decisions like ours are happening more and more. I'm
MEREDITH Mackenzie. D'silva in cultures around the
world including Peru where jomar Silva is from women
typically add their husbands last names to their own.
So I decided to just tack on d'silva much like joe's
mom. Um because like all my degrees, you know have my
name on it. Like I've done a lot of things, you know
with that name. And so I like the idea of like
belonging to the Silva family, but without taking out
my um my last name, I think of it as similar to
hyphenated or blended surnames in the U.S. Though Geo
and MEREDITH's Children will just have the last name
Silva. And unofficially the family came up with another
blended last name for fun. We do a combination of our
last names, which is max silva our official seal
christmas cards. You have a doormat that says welcome
the next Silva's while chatting with the max selves
about last names. There was a topic that kept coming up,
this idea of individual and family identities and what
it means to combine the two but still respect the
former as someone who has a name that is published
professionally. That's somethin thought about a lot.
Around 22% of women who married in their 20 tens kept
their last name after they got married and most of them
are highly educated, high earning and established in
their careers for a while. I thought I would be
included in that group of women but at the same time I
wanted to have the same last name as my husband and any
future Children we have and I came from like a really
large family and we're both ready to like have our own
identities and I'm alone and her husband both changed
their last names after they got married. And so we just
kind of like, we're like, well what if we, you know,
make our own last name and pick a new one Malone.
Believe it or not was based on an inside joke
referencing the 1976 Gangster movie Bugsy Malone. It
was just like a casual nickname that was like in a
small group of friends that we had and we just laughed
about it for so long. We were like, let's do that
beyond heterosexual couples. Research from the not
found that a little less than h of married L G B T Q
plus couples make the decision to choose one partner'
last name, others keep their names hyphenate or also
create new ones and one couple explained to the outlet
we wanted to be unified as a family and we wanted it to
represent both of us. The not calls this a new
tradition among young couples, but it's not easy. I
think it was a little bit more challenging than we
expected it to be. So the process varies by state
completely new last name's. Oftentimes have to go
through extra court approval and more paperwork. It's a
process we're still going through and again, we got
married last year, but someday soon I will officially
be Casey coda and on air and professionally I will a
always be Casey mendoza, Newsy Chicago.