My wife, Michelle received her new passport this morning and with it a new surname and new identity. We have now been married for just over four months and in a twist of fate, her ten year old passport expired a few days after our honeymoon in Rome in mid August. (The same week many cities in the UK were besieged by riots!)

However, there was a dilemma, which to be honest I never truly understood until much later. How would it feel to give up the surname you have grown accustomed to over the past twenty eight years? I was not asked to give anything up so important! A few tweets I have saved as favourites over on Twitter have perfectly summarised the now age old tradition of the married woman taking her husband’s name. One as recently as yesterday the other from just over a month ago, very much on similar lines. I have to say that I am very traditional when it comes to the name change. If the social convention was for me to change my surname, to that of my wife I probably would have gone through the motions. Personally I do not like double barrel names and our combination of surnames would have resulted in a sixteen character surname, including separating hyphen. Call me Victorian but I believe changing your surname is part of the commitment of marriage. Michelle decided to give up her now maiden name and take on my family name. The process begins with the arrival of a new passport.

From this point forward, every item of identification needs to be updated with the new name. Which I appreciate is quite an administrative chore but I am sure, I am worth the effort!

Received our first joint Christmas card yesterday morning from my friend Clive. The envelope had the recipients listed by joint addressee.