Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ulsanchris]

my gf and i are going to be married in Canada soon and were wondering about changing her family name to mine.
I think that it might better for her to keep her family name until we pernamently settle down in Canada, which won't be for a few years.
She's thinking it might be better to change it now.
anybody with any experience with this that can give some advice?

[peppergirl]

[Crois]

When if I get married (to have children) I dont see the point of my then wife changing her name. It will make the kids better spellers because they will have to spell a double barrel name instead of my short one.

[ryleeys]

I will expect my wife to change her name... don't even care if it's politically correct or not, it's tradition, especially in my family.

I don't see what the issue is though. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Being called Smith instead of Kim?

[Mr. Pink]

Well if you aren't planning on moving for awhile, wait.

The only advantage I can think of in the USA/Canada, is people assume if your last names aren't the same, you aren't LEGALLY married. It means producing a wedding certificate a lot. With the last names changed, it just makes things easier.

Not sure if my wife will do it, but I definately won't FORCE her to.

Ryleeys if you marry a Korean girl - How about her tradition? The woman here keep their family name until death.

[Gord]

[komtengi]

I would have though leaving the change until you left Korea would be the go. Seeing as most of the time she would keep having to use the Korean surname when dealing with other Koreans and for official documents it would make it much easier leaving it as is.

[Sojuman99]

My friend (an American so may not pertain to you) told me that when his wife got her immigration passport his name family name was used instead of hers. No choice, they didn't ask, just gave it to her that way.

His wife would have preferred to keep her family name, but it's kind of late now I think.

[sadsac]

My wife still has her family name and it has caused very little concern here. I don't like her family name and she doesn't like mine. A anme means nothing, it's the person that counts. Having your wife change her name later is not a problem, it's purely a matter of paperwork. All the best with getting married.

[crazylemongirl]

[katydid]

Then there's the introduction of this - , the hyphen which is a perfect compromise for this situation, I think. However, aesthetically speaking, if YOUR last name is 4 syllables long, and then hers is too, that might not be the best idea, especially when it comes time to fill out a form...you'll have to cram it all into one teeny tiny line.

Actually I knew of a couple when I was growing up that just combined their names together, because none of the more common options seems to work for them. I remember the guy's last name was Rybatowski (or something like that), and they both had some Irish blood in them, so they merged their names together to reflect their common heritage and both took the name Ryan.

[ulsanchris]

Thanks for the opinions on on my wife change her name when i never asked for them.
BTW I never asked her to change her name, she herself wants to change it. It surprised me a bit because she is korean and korean women traditionally keep their family names.

For those who gave useful advice thanks.

[Scott in HK]

I may be wrong here...but I don't even think there is way to change your family name in Korea.

When I got married, my wife kept her name and when we talked about changing it...she told me that she had never heard of anyone changing their last name in Korea. It might have something to do with the family registry...

So you might look into the question of whether it is even a possibility in Korea...

My wife says she might change her name to mine when we move back to Canada...but I can see no reason for her to do so...

[FUBAR]

[Toby]