Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Monogram Mourning

When Mr. Wonderful and I got engaged, there was never a question that I would change my last name. If I had told him I wanted to keep my maiden, he would have been fine with it. But I'm a traditionalist, and I also happen to really like his last name.

See, even though I adore Hetherington (sounds like royalty, doesn't it?), adopting Mr. W's will make it a whole 7 letters shorter. And that's great because "Hetherington" gets cut off all the time on documents and fill-in-the-box forms. It also causes me to get called "Heather" a lot (which I often jokingly attribute to my striking likeness to Heather Locklear. Ha.).

So all was well and fine with my adoption of the new moniker until I realized it was going to affect my initials.

(Cue some sort of dramatic musical ensemble.)

For one, I sign my initials on work stuff several times a day. I'm so used to sort of connecting the "M" and the "H," I don't really know whether I'll ever be able to break myself of the habit and write any other letters. I'm also a habitual user of "MH" when signing off emails.

When I came back from the honeymoon, my Creative Director had edited some of my project documents and in each one, where I had put "MH," he changed it to "MM." The new initials. It pained me. In my spleen.

To me, initials are almost like my first name and changing them is like changing my identity in some way. Who am I going to be if I'm not MH????

I'm having a hard time with this, people. And I think I'm going to have to practice writing "MM" a hundred times before it comes naturally from my hand.

The worst part? My new full initials are "MAM." And you know how I feel about ma'am...

10 comments:

Sizzle said...

What does it say about me that the first thing I thought when I saw MM was M & Ms? I think I need some chocolate.

I don't think I will change my name. As you know, my real first name is quite a doozie and very little goes well with it except, thankfully, my boring last name of Jones.

mom said...

I went from DAP to DAH! Which is worse! Actually,
you were MAH before - much like MAM!

LesleyG said...

Throughout my entire school life and somewhat into adult life, people have called me 'G' for some reason. So, yes, I have thought about this initial thing for sure. MAM is cute, though. ;)

megabrooke said...

aww. try not to think of it as MAM then, and go with sizzle's route- just MM. i like that! mmmm, chocolate! and also, remember how your new last name will always remind you of paris and marriage!

PoopyPants said...

I must look like Heather Locklear too!! Drives me crazy :)

laura said...

Funny...I never really had that problem since my initials remained the same...

Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks said...

When I took on Sweets' last name, it took no time at all to begin signing my new name. To this day, I still have to stop and think before signing initials. Weirdly, last name has the same initial, but I changed my middle name to my maiden name... stupid stupid stupid ... had I only known. =)

Raao said...

Hi Mel,
"...a Rose by anyother name would smell as sweet..."
Sincerely,
Richard
P.S. for some unknown reason, I can no longer signin to my blog.
Maybe Google has it in for me as I removed their Toolbar after an update...which made it useless.
I was wrong, Google must like you as I'm now signed-in.

Big Sister said...

This post was very near to my heart, as I was a very regal Hetherington and an MH for a long time too. Now I have a very ethnic last name and my initials... MLF - How about that for a change?

Anonymous said...

You should have gone the post-modern route, and had him change his last name to Hetherington...