Say my name.

What’s in name?

A lot if you ask me.

Especially in my last name.

I never fully took my ex-husband’s last name. I was Stephanie “maiden name”  “married name.”

But when it came to some things, it was easier to just be Stephanie “married name.” Unfortunately, these are things that I still need to use today, and they are apparently NOT easy to change. And even more unfortunately, most of it has to do with travel. Work travel involving everything from my Marriott Rewards card to my Southwest Rewards card to my American Express. I learned when trying to contact Southwest, for example, they needed me to send a letter with photocopies of legal documents claiming my maiden name as my own.

And at Marriott, I’ve had three different people say they are changing the name on my account and in all their records, and then the next time I check in, I find it’s still under Stephanie “married name.”  Nothing is more frustrating to me now than calling for a wake up call and hearing, “certainly Mrs. “married name.”  Grrr…

And then there was the time I tried to rent a car from Hertz. Unfortunately, work hadn’t changed my Amex over to “maiden name.” So, Hertz ALMOST didn’t let me rent the car. Luckily, I found a sympathetic worker who could tell I absolutely had to rent that car RIGHT THEN.

All of this is to say that there is nothing more beautiful than hearing someone in the hospitality industry refer to me as Ms. “maiden name.”

And there is nothing more satisfactory than knowing the person behind that name is strong enough to stand on her own without anyone else’s name attached.