It has been decided that I will eventually change my last name. Yes, WOO! The greatest name in the universe, one that often doubles as an expression of “Yipeeee!” It is derived from the Greek name Wootemelagos, which means “awesome.”
No, I am not so thrilled about this, but one morning, several months before Matt and I were engaged, we had the conversation. I think I casually said, “I’m gonna be Michelle Woo forever” and then Matt pretty much declared that his future wife would be taking his name. I never realized how important this was to him and then I started considering his views and then suddenly, we were negotiating my name.
“Well, I wouldn’t change my name at work.”
“Oh definitely. You should keep Michelle Woo for all professional purposes.”
“Well then pretty much, I would just change my name on my license. And I guess we can sign our Christmas cards using your name.”
“And you’d change your name on Facebook.”
“NO, THERE IS NO WAY I AM CHANGING MY NAME ON FACEBOOK! Or Twitter. And I am definitely not getting rid of MichelleWoo.com.”
“OK, that’s fine.”
It was the weirdest conversation ever.
I was cranky for a while. I mean, it’s my name. It’s me. I had to endure years of playground taunting: “Here comes the train! Chugga-chugga WOO WOO!” “Hey, are you Arsenio Hall? WOO! WOO! WOO! WOO!” It sucked. But I overcame it and learned to love my last name. Now I have to start all over with a new one? So not fair.
So for better or worse, I am “officially” changing my name. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll really notice the difference. I mean, I get Facebook, Twitter and my blog — what else is there? And I guess when we have babies, it’ll be nice to all have one name and not confuse the teachers and stuff. And a teeny part of me is even excited to change it. Mr. and Mrs [Same last name] is kinda fun. “Hi, we’re the [Same last name]s!” Cute.
Gawd, I’m so accommodating. Best wife ever.
WOO!
Edited to add: Many people who know Matt and I have said, “Well, you can always hyphenate your last name,” but then they’ll think of what our names would sound like together and they’ll burst into maniacal laughter. Yeah, it doesn’t work, unfortunately.













