Is it good or bad for your career to change your name?
Congrats! You just got married, now what? Back to work and you have a choice to carry on with your maiden name at work and in life or you can embark upon the admin that comes with changing your last name after getting married . It is an arduous one from standing in line at the DMV, calling the bank and credit card companies and changing email addresses but then there is all that personal branding work to think about. What are you going to do on social media and professional branding sites like LinkedIn? There are more than just the formalities when someone who has already established a career changes their name. There is the story behind the name change and the conversation that is prompted when you first introduce yourself with your new name. An opportunity is created to talk about your personal life and recent marriage and this can serve to deepen your relationships with your co-workers and clients. Being authentic has been written about as a positive factor for building trust at work so perhaps it is a great way to get to know people better but also could reduce your visibility as people don’t recognize your name immediately.
Below three women share their experiences and advice on changing your name after already establishing a career.
Keeping it private
Cynthia Zeltwanger, Executive Director at the Paulson Institute, chose not to change her name when she got married in 1992.
As a private person, she believes the topic can quickly spawn a personal conversation.
“I am a private person and I did not want to get into my personal life with professional relationships,” she said. “If you got married, it’s fine but if you are getting divorced, people could assume you got married and it creates a personal conversation with people in business that you might want to avoid.”
Zeltwanger got married when she was climbing the corporate ladder at a subsidiary of Société Générale. She remembers getting heat from her French colleagues for not taking her husband’s name but she was at pivotal point in her career and wanted to be taken seriously.
“Not so much anymore but when a woman gets married she can be seen as not as serious about her job,” said Zeltwanger. “While men are seen as more reliable when they have kids, women are seen as less committed.”
She believes that women need to be more cautious about clarifying their career intentions when making a name change.
“Be clear about your goals and aspirations and make sure the people in charge of your career progression know your goals have not changed just because you got married,” she said.“Some people will question your commitment.”
Hyphenating it
Patty Kevin followed family members into the derivatives business and worked 10 years in the industry before getting married. Afraid she would lose her identity but at the same time excited to embark on this new chapter in her life, she decided to hyphenate her name to Kevin-Schuler.
She said that the hyphenation was a way to make her colleagues aware of the name change.
“The colleagues you are close to know what’s going on in your life,” she said. “However, it’s the people on the peripheral that you need to educate.”
As Schuler’s career took her to the Chicago Board Options Exchange and then to her current role as Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development at the Boston Options Exchange, she felt more comfortable with her new identity.
Schuler finally dropped her maiden name when she got divorced because she wanted to have the same last name as her kids.
With the advent of email and social media, Schuler believes it is easy to notify people of a name change. She recommends adding a hyphen in your name or a note in your email signature about the transition.
However, Schuler says there are times when it is okay to go back and forth between identities.
“I still get asked if I am related to this relative or that one,” she said. “If I am talking to someone who knows my family, I will introduce myself as Patty Kevin. I admit my transition has been a fluid one.”
Embracing it
While Zeltwanger wanted to keep her personal life private and Schuler has kept her identity flexible, others have embraced their new names without looking back.
Nancy Stern, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Allston Trading, remembers getting married and swiftly changing her last name.
“I remember changing my name, address and phone number all at the same time,” she said. “This was before Facebook and Linked In.”
Starting out as a lawyer at Gardner, Carton & Douglas, Stern was worried she would lose her connections in the process and have to build up her network again.Similar to Schuler, Stern also felt like she was losing a part of her identity. However, looking back, she is glad that she made the change and believes women should embrace this right to choose.
“I didn’t really see this as a compromise of my feminism because I chose my husband and chose to take his name. The alternative would be my father’s name and while I had a wonderful father whom I loved very much, we cannot choose our fathers,” she said.
Changing your name is usually associated with a significant life event and If you are good at self-promotion and marketing yourself, a name change is an exciting reason to reinvent yourself. Have fun with your new personal branding campaign.
By Jessica Darmoni
